Never Judge A Book
by 1998Babywriter
Summary: Meet Detective Adrianna Marcus of12th precinct. She's not well liked by her colleagues and has very few friends. They all think she is a spoilt little brat because of her millionaire dad. Only they don't the truth about her. Nobody does. Until somebody finally listens. All it takes is one person to tell the girl, whose past is so heartbreaking, that they believe her.
1. Chapter 1

Never Judge A Book

Chapter One: Misconceived

It was July 2006 The NYPD detectives of 12th precinct were working as hard as ever, bringing down criminals left, right and centre. It wasn't the easiest job in the world but someone had to do it. They'd recently had a new detective join their ranks at twelfth. Her name was Detective Adrianna Marcus. Adrianna was small built, standing at around five two, with medium length chestnut coloured curls. She had big green eyes, usually somewhat magnified by the thick lenses of her glasses. Greek in descent on her mother's side her skin was lightly tanned. Alongside speaking English she also spoke fluent Greek, something she often used to her advantage.

Born 23rd April 1976 to Eddie and Marla Huntley, Adrianna was unlike most cops due to the fact she came from a very privileged background because her father owned a chain of very successful strip clubs, which he'd inherited from his father when he'd died young and her dad had been just twenty one, and was a multi-millionaire. This often caused people to dislike her and believe she was daddy's little girl or a spoilt little rich girl. Which she wasn't. She never accepted his hand-outs, the only time she had was when she had moved into her place. He had given her enough money to buy it outright even though it was only a little two bed thing. But other than that she didn't accept his hand-outs. And there was reason for this. She didn't like him but not because he was rich, big-headed, self-absorbed or anything like that, well maybe a little bit. It was because he was a disgusting paedophile.

He'd touched her up a few times, put his hands up her shirt and touched her breasts and put his hands up her skirt. And he had forced her to perform oral sex on him more than a few times. Then when she was thirteen, just days after her birthday, he'd brutally raped her and it was enough to make her hate him for the rest of her life. He'd done it no more than twenty four times over the next three years. Then just months after raping her just after sixteenth birthday he'd raped her best friend and then paid her friends family off. Paid them enough to drop the charges and avoid going to court. That friend had never spoken to her again. She'd taken that money because she felt he'd owed her for what he'd done to her. Then never accepted another dime from him and cut all ties with him because she hated him. She liked to be independent which was why she had a job and paid all of her own bills with the money she'd earned. Then treated herself with the money she'd earned.

Her parents, especially her mother Marla had wanted her to be a lawyer or a doctor but Adrianna was not that kind of girl. She had always wanted to join the police force ever since she could remember. This had not pleased her mom at all. She had told her being a police officer was not a woman's job and that she wouldn't fit in there because she came from a wealthy background. And that police women were not easy to marry. This had annoyed her. She did not much care for taking a husband. Which had irritated her mom because she told her that every respectable woman she be married to a respectable, well earning man who could and would take care of her. She did not need a man to take care of her. She loved what she did.

She fondly remembered a row she'd had with her mother when she'd been accepted into the police training academy. You'd think after twelve years her mother would've accepted her choice of profession, but Marla hadn't. She was pleased she was out of uniform and was a detective but still wished she'd pack it in and go to law school. Adrianna refused to do so. She wasn't going to give up her job and go to law school ever.

Her parents had split when she'd been three and her mom had remarried three years down the line. She was very close to her stepdad as he had always been more of a dad to her than her own dad. He had been in her life since she was three and half. She called him dad. He had treated her like a daughter, even though he had two of his own with her mom. He said he was her first daughter and treated her exactly the same way he treated her half-sisters. Her dad had also remarried, to a woman half his age and who she disliked because she was incredibly self-centred and had ignored her whenever she had been around. She had been vain and mean. She was a woman who did not like children so when she and her brother, Alexander, were at their father's house they had to stay away from her and behave otherwise she would punish them by yelling at them and slapping them. She was very close to Alexander and he was very protective of her, he always gave her boyfriends the once over and his seal of approval.

Her mom liked setting her up with wealthy men but the relationships rarely worked out for two reasons usually. One most of them were self-centred arseholes and disliked the fact that she was a policewoman. Two, she pushed them away and didn't like to be very intimate with them, which many of them hated. A lot of them had begged her for sex but when she'd refused repeatedly got fed up and ended the relationship. Some of the relationships worked out but then ended because the men were disrespected by their wealthy peers because she was working woman, working as policewoman. Or she'd just realised they were also self-centred idiots. The only one who hadn't been a wealthy man was her last boyfriend, he'd been a cop. But he wanted to be wealthy and expected her to regularly take hand-outs from her wealthy father. Which was why the relationship had ended and he had gone round telling her everyone she was daddy's little rich girl.

She was not what everyone thought she was.

Twelfth was supposed to have been a fresh start for her, she had been determined to drop her spoilt little rich girl tag once and for all. But if only life were that simple. It didn't take long for everyone to get the wrong idea. Her ex-boyfriend had been working there when she'd first transferred over and he had soon spread it around the precinct who her dad was and that she was just a spoilt little rich girl. And that she was tight with her cash and only thought of herself. It frustrated her and this caused her to play along with it. So she effectively became what people expected her to be and not who she really was. This screwed up her chances of losing her spoilt little rich girl tag. The ex-boyfriend who had spread this had transferred two weeks after her arrival for unidentified reasons.

But she was still desperate to lose that tag once and for all. Maybe she needed someone to show her she was not what everyone thought she was. Though constantly being called it really hurt and annoyed her. Maybe this someone was the one person in perhaps the whole of twelfth who wasn't so sure she was a spoilt little rich girl.

She had arrived at twelfth six weeks ago and was struggling to fit in there because of what had ex-boyfriend had told everyone about her. People had taken an instant dislike to her because came from money and it was not helped by her latest case. A young woman had been found, shaking and covered in blood next to body, a man in his late teens, early twenties. She and her partner Detective Don Flack had been sent to the scene. By the time they arrived she was sitting in an ambulance with a blanket wrapped around her shaking shoulders. Lindsay Monroe was beside her, talking to her. "I'll talk to the girl" said Adrianna.

"Ok" said Flack "I'll go and talk to Mac and Danny, see what they've got". Adrianna nodded and they went their separate ways. She went over to the girl. "Hey I'm detective Marcus, what's your name sweetheart?"

"Stephanie Bowden" she replied shakily.

"And how old are you?" asked Adrianna.

"Twenty three" replied Stephanie, trembling.

"Ok Stephanie and can you tell me what happened?" Adrianna asked gently.

"It was self-defence" she stammered before bursting into tears.

"I'll go with her to the hospital" said Lindsay "Do a sexual assault kit"

"If you give me a ring when it's done I'll come over and see if I can take a statement" replied Adrianna.

"Ok" nodded Lindsay.

"Stephanie Miss Monroe is going to go the hospital with you and take some evidence ok?" said Adrianna. Stephanie nodded before the paramedic helped her move onto the bed. Lindsay climbed into the ambulance with Stephanie and the paramedic closed the doors. Adrianna watched it go before going up to join Flack in the hotel room the body was in. "What's his name?" she asked.

"Callum Benjamin" said Flack "Twenty three. The rooms under his name"

"Did she call it in?" asked Adrianna.

"No the woman staying next door called it in" replied Flack "She heard screaming about half-past ten and called the police. Our lot came along and checked it out. Found the girl, he was already dead"

"What is the first guess C.O.D?" she asked looking over to Callum Benjamin's dead body.

"Multiple stab wounds the chest and torso" replied Flack "What's the girls name?"

"Stephanie" said Adrianna"

"What did she say?" he asked.

"She said it was self-defence" replied Adrianna looking at the body. That seemed a little excessive for a self-defensive attack. From what she could see he had been stabbed at least ten times. She'd seen self-defence attacks in her time but ten stab wounds seemed a little excessive. "But this it's extreme self-defence"

"She was probably in fear for her life" said Flack "She's clearly been raped"

Adrianna looked around the room and noticed something odd. Nothing really seemed that out of place. Only a few things had been knocked over and broken. And there was only blood in the bedroom. Surely if he'd chased her around the whole place would be completely trashed and the blood wouldn't be concentrated into just one area. "There's something out about this whole crime scene" she said finally.

"What do you mean?" Flack frowned.

"Well look around. What do you see?" she replied.

"Blood. A lot of blood" he shrugged "That vase has been knocked over and…"

"Doesn't it seem odd that nothings really out of place?" she asked him.

"Well not really" he said, a little confused.

"What are you suggesting Adrianna?" asked Danny "That she cold bloodedly stabbed him to death. Have you seen her? She was shaking and crying like nothing I've ever seen before"

"No I wasn't" she replied defensively "I was just saying its odd that nothings out of place that's all. I wasn't suggesting she did it in cold blood. Just to me it doesn't look like there was much of a struggle. I just think there's something off about it. And yes I saw her. She was clearly shaken up"

"Maybe he drugged her so she wouldn't put up a resistance" suggested Flack "But she came round and realised what was going on so she grabbed the knife and stabbed him"

"Have you got the knife?" she asked Danny.

"All bagged and ready for analysis" he shrugged, not giving her eye contact. "That good enough for you Detective Rich?"

She glared at Danny, her feelings dented by him. He'd always had something against her ever since she'd arrived. Flack wasn't as bad but he had his moments. "I'll go and talk to neighbour who heard her screaming" she said before leaving the room.

"God she drives me loopy" hissed Danny.

"Why?" asked Flack "What does she do that's so bad that it drives you loopy?"

"It's the way she acts" retorted Danny "Like she's better than everyone else. It gets my back up and I can't stand it"

"She does a bit yeah" said Flack

"She thinks so highly of herself" hissed Danny "It drives me mad. She comes from money people who come from money are all the same. Spoilt little brats, think far too highly of themselves and are incredibly selfish"

"I think that's a little harsh" Flack said honestly "She can be a bit of a brat sometimes but she doesn't act like she's better than everyone else. And she's not self-important."

"Yes she is" Danny shook his head and started taking pictures again. "I don't know why she joined the police. We don't need spoilt little-"

"I'm off" Flack interrupted Danny. Ok so he wasn't willing to admit that he didn't agree but he didn't want to hear Danny's pre-judgemental comments about rich people and about how they were all the same. He'd been brought up to never prejudge people. And he liked to stick to the values his parents had taught him. So he left the hotel room and went to wait in the car. She joined him shortly after. "I thought you'd still be upstairs with your best mate." She said closing the door.

"Yeah well I would be if he wasn't giving me a headache about his prejudgements of rich people" replied Flack starting the engine "Might as well head back to the precinct"

"Yeah might as well" she nodded. He pulled away from the hotel and they drove back to the precinct. She sat herself down at her desk and typed Callum Benjamin's name into the system. He had priors for dealing in class A drugs and assault three years ago and spent three years in prison. He'd only just been released the previous day. Then her phone started ringing. "Hey Lindsay… she is… ok I'll be there in half an hour tops" the call ended and she printed Callum's record sheet. She walked over to Flack's desk and dropped the paper onto his desk. "Callum Benjamin's rap sheet"

"Where you going?" he asked.

"Hospital. Stephanie's ready to talk" she replied Adrianna "I'm going to take her statement"

"Ok good luck. Danny rung me and said Lindsay couldn't get a word out of her" said Flack.

"She called him first?" Adrianna frowned.

"Yeah" shrugged Flack "Why?"

"Nothing it's nothing. I shouldn't take it personally" she shook her head. But feeling incredibly pissed for some reason. "I should go". Then she hurried away and went to her car. A blue, three door, Peugeot 206. She pulled the door shut and started the engine. She pulled out of the car park and headed to trinity general. The receptionist directed her up to the eleventh floor. "Thank you" she said and headed over to the lifts. She took it up to the eleventh floor and found her way to Stephanie Bowden's room. She knocked on the door before going inside. "Hey Stephanie" said Adrianna closing the door. Lindsay was sat in the chair beside Stephanie's bed holding her hand.

"Detective Marcus?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. Now I need to ask you a couple of questions about what happened." Adrianna explained. "Firstly how do you know Callum Benjamin?"

"He is… was my boyfriend" she trembled, tears welling in her eyes.

"How long have you been together?" she asked.

"Eight years" said Stephanie "We were childhood sweethearts… and I killed him"

"I know" she sighed "What happened tonight?"

"We were celebrating" she began "He… he just got out of Ely two days ago so we got on the plane the same day and came to New York to celebrate… we checked into the hotel and ordered room service…. He wanted sex but I said no. It started to go fuzzy… and then I blacked out…" she burst into tears "When I came round… he was… he was… raping me… I was so… so scared"

"Hey it's ok" Lindsay squeezed her hand.

"I fought him off but he… he came after me" she trembled "I ran into the kitchenette and grabbed the… the knife. He chased me… me into the bedroom… and tried… tried to grab me so I stabbed him a couple of… of times"

"At least ten times" said Adrianna.

"No… no I didn't" she shook her head tearfully.

"Yes… you did" Adrianna sighed.

"I… I was so scared" she sobbed "I thought he was going to kill me"

"Ok… what happened next?" asked Adrianna.

"I collapsed in tears and realised what I'd done" said Stephanie.

"Why didn't you call the police?" asked Adrianna.

"I was in shock" replied Stephanie before a fresh flood of tears poured down her cheeks. "I didn't know how to function. I'd just… just killed my childhood sweetheart."

Lindsay pulled Stephanie into a protective hug and comforted her. Adrianna hung back, unsure of what to do or say. "Thanks Stephanie… I'll be off" then she left the room. Lindsay following close behind.

"I can't believe you said that to her!" hissed Lindsay.

"Said what?" frowned Adrianna.

"That she'd stabbed him at least ten times!" Lindsay retorted "She's been raped she doesn't need you shoving it down her throat that she stabbed him over ten times and insisting that she did it so many times. Do you have a heart?"

"Yes I do and I was just stating the facts" replied Adrianna "If he did rape her then deserved what he got."

"IF!" Lindsay exclaimed furiously "If he raped her! What do you mean if? He clearly raped her. She's a mess! How can you say that?"

"I just mean we'll know for definite when the rape kit comes back and if it proves she was definitely raped the DA won't press charges for murder. They'll see she was defending herself" Adrianna tried to explain her previous statement.

"That rape kit will prove she was raped!" Lindsay snapped "What's wrong with you? Why can't you see that girls traumatised?"

"I can see it" Adrianna retorted. "I feel sorry for her because if it's true then he's really messed her up!"

"You don't act like it!" Lindsay shook her head.

"I do feel sorry for her" said Adrianna "I know what she's going through"

"No you don't!" Lindsay laughed in disbelief.

"Yes I do" Adrianna replied insistently "I think all rapists deserve to be thrown in jail and chemically castrated. I know what Stephanie is going through and I don't care if you don't believe me because I know what I'm saying is true"

"Get lost Adrianna" Lindsay scowled. And with that Adrianna headed over to the elevator and headed back down to the car park. She found her car and unlocked it. Slipping inside she slammed the door shut and looked into the steering wheel and started pummelling it. She knew what it was like to be raped. She'd been there herself and she knew what it was like to be a victim. Yet Lindsay didn't seem to believe she knew what Stephanie was going through. And that hurt. Finally she stopped pummelling the steering wheel and clipped her seatbelt in before starting the engine and driving back to the precinct.

Once there she shared Stephanie's statement with Flack and the others. Danny and Hawkes shared the evidence they'd found at the scene. "Semen and vaginal secretions match Callum Benjamin and Stephanie Bowden. The blood was all his and the DNA under her fingernails matched Callum Benjamin's DNA." Said Danny.

"She had minor vaginal bruising, no tearing either inside or out" said Hawkes "And there was no evidence of her blood at the scene so no evidence it was violent enough to make her bleed"

"What about tox?" Adrianna asked.

"Came back negative on all substances, including GHB and Rohypnol" said replied Danny.

"She didn't have any drugs in her system at all?" Adrianna frowned. "What about her blood alcohol limit?"

"0.01" replied Hawkes

"So she was under the legal limit and didn't have drugs in her system. Why did she pass out then?" Adrianna puzzled.

"Maybe she was just feeling ill" suggested Flack.

"Maybe" said Adrianna. "What about the knife?"

"Hers were the only prints on it" replied Danny.

After this she headed home and came in early the next day to go over the evidence. But it didn't add up. She had no drugs in her system, she was under the legal limit and had no head injuries. She hadn't mentioned anything about being ill either. So she couldn't figure out why she'd supposedly passed out. Adrianna made a few phone calls and discovered the knife used to stab Callum Benjamin was not kept in any of the kitchenettes and only small knives were kept in them. So either Callum Benjamin or Stephanie Bowden had brought it with them. And the only prints on it were hers. She'd brought the knife with her. She examined the fingerprint marks on the knife. They were positioned in a way that suggested she'd clutched knife in a downward fashion as her thumb was above her four fingers. So she ordered a tox screen and sat at her desk waiting for the phone to ring. It wasn't too long before Adam called her with the results. She went up to the lab immediately. "Callum Benjamin had high levels of GHB in his system. About 450mg. He would have been incapable of running after her when she claims he did" explained Adam.

"She drugged him?" Adrianna frowned.

"Yes" nodded Adam "Anymore and it could've been fatal"

"Thanks Adam" she nodded before walking off. But she was met by an angry Lindsay and Danny. "I heard you ordered a tox screen on Callum Benjamin"

"Yeah I did" she shrugged "Why?" Lindsay slapped her round the face. "What the hell Lindsay!"

"That poor girl was raped!" Lindsay seethed "And yet you seem to be out to make her a murderer!"

"I'm just seeing what the evidence shows me" Adrianna defended her actions. "She didn't have drugs in her system, wasn't over the legal limit and didn't mention being ill. I checked with the hotel. They don't keep those knives in their hotel rooms for safety reasons and hers were the only prints on the knife. Which means she brought it with her. Callum Benjamin had GHB in his system"

"So what he still attacked and raped her" said Lindsay.

"He had 450mg of GHB in his system, he would've been incapable of attacking her" said Adrianna.

"What have you got against this girl?" Lindsay demanded.

"Nothing. But I think she's been lying about what happened. I'm not saying he didn't rape her but she still drugged him" replied Adrianna.

"He probably put the GHB in a glass of wine and gave her the wrong glass" said Lindsay "He raped her. You only have to look at her to know that"

Adrianna didn't say another word before walking away. She went to see Sid in the morgue. "When do you place T.O.D?" she asked.

"Between nine and ten pm" replied Sid.

"Thank you!" she said. The neighbour had heard a scream around ten thirty and by then Callum Benjamin was already dead. Stephanie had lied to her and she knew it. "And these. Was this rape?" she showed him some pictures Lindsay had taken.

"If she wasn't drugged or unconscious no this probably wasn't rape" Sid sighed "Just very rough sex. There's no vaginal tearing and she didn't bleed. In my opinion of these pictures he probably didn't rape her."

"Thanks Sid" she said before leaving the morgue. She presented her findings to everyone else but they didn't go down well. Lindsay was still insisting Callum had raped Stephanie and there was no changing her mind. And so did everyone else believe that Callum had raped her.

She spoke to The DA and he believed she had enough to arrest Stephanie for Callum Benjamin's murder so she went by the hospital where Stephanie was about to leave and made the arrest. "Stephanie Bowden you're under arrest for the murder of Callum Benjamin…"

"What!" Stephanie cried.

Back at the precinct she put Stephanie in interview. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Sore" replied Stephanie.

"Look Stephanie I know you killed him" said Adrianna "You brought the knife with you and you drugged him with GHB then you stabbed him seventeen times"

"No I didn't" tears welled in her eyes.

"Yes you did" replied Adrianna "When you screamed at half past ten Callum was already dead"

"No he wasn't" she shook her head tearfully

"Yes he was" Adrianna shook her head "The coroner said he died between nine and ten pm. There were no drugs in your system and your blood alcohol limit was below the legal limit. He didn't drug you"

"He raped me!" she cried.

"No he didn't. You drugged him with nearly five hundred milligrams of GHB. He would've been incapable of running after you and raping you. You had consensual sex then you stabbed him to death." Said Adrianna.

"No he raped me!" she cried.

"Drop the act!" Adrianna retorted "It won't work on me!"

At that moment the door flew open and Lindsay and Flack came inside. "Leave her alone!" Lindsay hissed before holding Stephanie comfortingly in her arms.

"She thinks I murdered him!" Stephanie cried.

"She's just being a spoilt little brat" Lindsay hissed coldly.

"She knows what she did!" Adrianna retorted.

"Get out of here!" Lindsay shouted. So Adrianna stormed off and waited for the situation to calm down a bit before giving it another go…

* * *

So this is the very first chapter of Never Judge a Book my longest ever project. I'm not sure how you'll feel about this chapter. I'd be really happy to get some feedback to see where I can improve this one. This has been in the works for about 18 months and it has taken me ages to perfect this first chapter. I have about 12 or 13 chapters that are ready to go up I just need to proof read them. Please R&R. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Dark Little Lies

An hour later Stephanie had calmed down and Adrianna could interrogate her again. "Are you mad?" Flack asked. "Lindsay will bottle you!"

"That girls lying about what happened and I know she's lying" replied Adrianna "I want her to tell me the truth."

"Maybe you should back down on this one" said Flack.

"What and let a murderer get off with a slap on the wrist?" she retorted "I don't think so"

"Why are you so certain she's a murderer?" asked Flack "It's like you're a woman possessed!"

"I went over all of the evidence and it doesn't add up with her version of events" explained Adrianna "I asked Sid, he doesn't think Callum raped her and he did have nearly 500mg of GHB in his system Flack. She brought the knife with her and she brought the GHB"

"We didn't find any at the scene though" said Flack.

"She probably slipped it to him somewhere else. Which means he would've been incapable of raping and attacking her the way she claims he did" Adrianna reasoned. "I'm going back in there now. She's going to tell me the truth. She's not going to play me"

"Come on" he said "I think you should drop this. You'll just make everyone hate you even more"

"How can you all hate me even more?" she snapped "You all hate my guts because I come from a wealthy family and think I'm better than everyone else!"

So she went back in and tried a different tactic. "Ok Stephanie. What happened the night Callum died"

"He drugged me" she replied "Then he raped me"

"And then what happened?" Adrianna asked.

"After he'd stopped I ran towards the door but he chased me and slammed me against the door" she replied tearfully "I fought him off and ran to the kitchenette… I grabbed the knife out of the drawer and when he attacked me again I stabbed him. I was scared"

"Ok" said Adrianna "I do have a few problems with your statement Stephanie. We did a blood test to test for alcohol and drugs but the results didn't show anything. Your blood alcohol level was 0.1 and there were absolutely no traces of any date rape drugs or any drugs for that matter, in your system. You weren't drugged"

"He raped me" said Stephanie.

"I don't think he did" sighed Adrianna.

"He did!" she cried insistently and started crying again.

"Don't turn the tears on. It will not work with me" Adrianna said sternly. Wondering why Lindsay hadn't come into the room and bashed her head in. Well it was because there was no one on the other side of the glass this time.

Then suddenly Stephanie started laughing. She laughed and laughed uncontrollably. Adrianna stared at her in absolute shock. "What's so funny?"

"I've got that other cop woman wrapped round my little finger and yet you don't believe me one bit" she laughed. "I guess you must be New York's finest"

"He didn't rape you" said Adrianna.

"No he didn't" laughed Stephanie "When we went for dinner at the most expensive restaurant in New York I slipped the GHB into his wine while he was in the toilet. He drank it without realising I added a little something extra to it. We went back to our room and made love like there was no tomorrow. Then he started feeling ill. And he passed out on the bed. I took the opportunity and fetched my knife from my bag. And stabbed him to death as he lay passed out on the bed. It felt so damn good to watch him die. To hear him take his last breath"

"You evil cow" Adrianna hissed. "Why did you kill him?"

"He fathered a child with another woman before he went to prison. She turned up at the house looking for him a year into his sentence. He'd stopped paying his child maintenance fees and she wanted to know where he was. I was so angry at him. I waited until he got out and brought him to New York. I planned this whole romantic getaway as a cover so I could kill him for betraying me! I made up the whole story about him raping me so I would be a victim and get off because it would look like self-defence." She cringed.

"People like you make me sick!" Adrianna scowled. "How can you lie about being raped?!"

"It was so easy" she smirked "Monroe's wrapped around my little finger"

"Its people like you who make it harder for the real victims to be believed when they report a rape" Adrianna seethed "Anyone who lies about being raped is as bad as a rapist. If not worse. They make it harder for the real victims."

"I bet you've never been a victim" said Stephanie "No you must've been to dig this deep into my case and expose the truth about my brilliant crime. Were you raped?"

Adrianna glared at her, feeling sick to the stomach.

"Who raped you?" she asked, grinning because she thought it was hilarious. Adrianna didn't reply. "Come on who raped you?"

"Shut up" Adrianna hissed "I hope you rot in prison. You belong there with all the other criminal scum. You disgust me. You make me sick to my stomach. I hope you get taught a lesson in prison. Get taught a lesson and have a long hard look at yourself you disgusting bitch."

Stephanie stood up and slapped Adrianna round the face as hard as she could. So hard it split her lip and knocked her glasses right off her face. She stood up, clutching her mouth and burst in tears before running off. She ran through the precinct. As she went she knocked into Flack. "Hey you ok…" he tailed off as she vanished out of sight. He went into the room. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing" Stephanie smirked. Flack looked at her, well she'd changed her tune. She obviously hadn't been raped. Shaking his head he picked Adrianna's glasses up and left the room. "Make sure she doesn't go anywhere" he said to a patrolman. Then he followed the direction Adrianna had taken.

She ran out into the yard and into one of the vans. She collapsed in a heap and bent her knees underneath her chin and sobbed into them. Having someone laugh at the fact you were raped was like being stabbed repeatedly through the heart. As she sobbed a figure appeared in the doorway. Flack. He looked at her through the window, she was crying her eyes out. Whatever Stephanie had said to her must've been deeply hurtful because she was in bits. Sighing he stepped inside and sat down beside her. "You ok?"

"Fine" she sniffed looking up at him

"That's nasty" he gestured to her lip.

"She slapped me" she sighed "Because I told her I hope she rots in prisons because she belongs there. That I hope they teach her a lesson and she has a long hard look at herself"

"So she confessed?" asked.

"She just started laughing. She planned the whole thing because he cheated on her a few years back and had a child with another woman. She's a coldblooded murderer." Adrianna said. "She lied about being raped. It made me feel sick. It just makes it harder for the girls who have really been raped to be believed. I had a friend… who was raped and she was too afraid to report it because she thought no one would believe her. It made me so angry and upset. How can you laugh about lying about being raped?"

"If you're sick" said Flack. "I got these for you" he handed her glasses to her.

"Thanks" she sighed pushing them onto her face.

The DA charged Stephanie with first degree murder and perverting the course of justice and she was remanded into custody. Justice.

She tried to reconcile with Lindsay but to no avail. Even though Lindsay knew Callum hadn't raped Stephanie and that she'd killed him in cold blood. She overheard her, Danny and Flack talking. "I don't want to give her the satisfaction" said Lindsay.

"But she was right" said Flack "I mean I thought she was mad to chase that lead. I thought it was just stupid and going to be a dead end. But she was right"

"Yeah but I won't apologise and give her the satisfaction of being right" said Lindsay.

"Lindsay's right" Danny agreed. "It will make her even more big-headed"

Her heart split in two. All she wanted to do was cry.

After this she stopped being polite to everyone because her heart was hurting. Stephanie Bowden had laughed at the fact she'd been raped and Danny and Lindsay hated her because she was rich, big-headed and thought she always had to be right amongst other things. And everyone else just didn't like her and didn't bother talking to her. It hurt to be judged this way. It's part of a psychological theory, known as the social learning theory, that we behave the way others perceive us. People believed she was a spoilt little rich girl who was big-headed, always had to be right and brattish so that's how she often behaved. This is part of the self-fulfilling prophecy. It's a vicious cycle to be in. And she was desperate to escape it.

Only at the moment this was even harder. She had no friends and after hearing Danny and Lindsay's insulting comments she didn't want to play nice. She snapped at everyone she spoke to, acted like little miss know it all, questioning everybody's ideas and well everything else, being especially spikey with Danny and Lindsay and having little patience with suspects during interview. She was showing them all what they thought she was. They judged her to be this way so she was acting it. Only underneath of all of that there was a little girl crying out in agony. A little girl who scared and alone. A little girl who had suffered so much. If they knew even a slither of the truth they'd probably drop their heads in shame for being so judgemental.

Six weeks passed and the tension between her and her colleagues remained as hostile as ever, mostly due to her irrational attitude. She was been called out to a crime scene with her partner, Don Flack, at a stag party in lower Manhattan. The place was a mess and that was without factoring in all the blood. There were three bodies, all shot. "This place is a mess" she said.

"I reckon everyone got panicked when they heard the gun going off and started running round in panic" replied Flack. "What's your earliest guess on C.O.D?"

"Gunshots to the chest" replied Sheldon Hawkes.

A witness described a man heading into the toilet whilst the gunfire had been taking place. So Flack and Danny checked it. In there they found a man lying dead on the floor. Flack heard crying and looked into the cubicles to find a young girl hunched up on the toilet bowl. She saw him. "Hey what's your name?" he asked softly.

"Carly brown" she replied shyly, sniffing loudly.

"Is that your daddy Carly?" he asked.

She nodded and cried harder. "Hey it's gonna be ok. We're gonna take you somewhere safe ok I promise"

She nodded and jumped off the toilet seat. He held out his hand to her and she looked at it confused. "It's ok I won't hurt you" he said softly. She blinked then placed her small hand in his. He smiled at her and led her out of the toilets. He walked her over to a female patrolwoman. "I need you to take this young lady to the precinct. Have someone collect her clothes"

"Will do" she nodded.

"This lady here is going to take you to the precinct and look after you until I get back then we can have a little talk about what happened ok?" he explained.

"No" she shook her head "I want you"

"I need to stay here sweetheart" he replied "I need to take statements to find out who hurt your daddy"

"The bad man hurt him" she sobbed "The big scary man"

"I know but I need you to go with this lady" he said softly before trying to hand her over to the patrolwoman.

"No!" she cried before wrapping her arms around his waist and clinging on for dear life.

Adrianna saw and went over after interviewing a witness. "What's going on?"

"This is Carly" replied Flack "Her dad's dead in the men's toilet and she won't go with Joanie to the precinct"

"I want you" she cried

"Take her there are only five more witnesses to talk to. I can do it" said Adrianna "She obviously trusts you"

"You sure?" asked Flack.

"Yeah no problem" she smiled

"Thanks, I owe you one" he smiled back. Adrianna shrugged and headed off to talk to the last of the witnesses.

He picked Carly up and took her down to the car and drove her back to the precinct. She gave him her bag in which he found contact numbers for mom and grandmother. He gave them both a ring but her mom didn't pick up but her grandmother did so he asked her to come to the precinct immediately.

Meanwhile back at the scene Adrianna had just finished up with the last of the witnesses when a patrolman came into the room with another man. "He was trying to get his car keys back. He was one of the guests" said the patrolman. The man was medium height, standing around 5ft 13in. His cold blue eyes rested upon his wrinkling round face. His grey hair looked a little flustered, as did his face.

"Dad?" said Adrianna. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Adrianna sweetheart" he said seeing her.

"Don't Adrianna sweetheart me" she replied.

"Do you want to interview him now detective?" asked the patrolman.

"No he can wait. Take him to the precinct and put him holding. He's a suspect until we clear him." she replied.

"Ok. Come on sir" said the patrol officer.

"I'm your father young lady" he hissed "You interview me now or not all"

"Fine someone else can do it you old sod" she retorted "Get him out of here and out of my sight!"

The patrolman pulled her dad from the room and took him away.

Lindsay and Danny looked Adrianna, not sure what to make of what she had just done. How she had treated her father in front of everyone. "That was a bit uncalled for Adrianna" said Danny "He's your dad"

"Yes he's my dad but that doesn't mean I have to be nice to him" she replied.

"Yeah but talking to him like that in front of everyone?" said Lindsay.

"You don't know anything about me or him." Adrianna snapped "I hate him"

"What did he do to you to make you hate him?" asked Danny.

"That is none of your business" she replied before storming off. She could've told them, made them understand but the thing was she was too embarrassed and too sickened to tell anyone what her father had done to her as a child. She'd never reported him because she was too scared of him.

"I guess Ben was right. She is a spoilt little brat" said Danny

"Danny be quiet" Lindsay hissed. "She might have a reason to be like that. I mean she is right. We don't know much about her or her father. But I would never speak to my dad that way"

"Neither would I" he agreed "I definitely wouldn't do it in public either. That's a good way to make people really hate you."

Adrianna went back to the precinct feeling very angry. She was going to make sure he was treated like a suspect and make sure he felt persecuted. He hadn't been before. He deserved it. He'd raped her best friend and had gotten away with it. He'd waved enough money around to get everyone to look the other way. This time that wasn't happening.

At the precinct Flack purchased a biscuit and some orange juice and went back to his desk where Carly was waiting. "Here" he handed them to Carly. "I need you to tell me what happened. Let's start with why you were there with your daddy"

"Mommy wanted to go out so she left me with daddy and went to be drunk" said Carly "Daddy took me to his party. I hid under the table until I heard loud banging. Then daddy grabbed me and took me into the toilet. He was all red and then he was on the floor and then he was… daddy's dead" she let a few tears fall.

"Did you see what happened to those other people?" he asked.

"They were hurt too" she replied "After the loud bangs. There was a man with a gun."

"What did he look like?" asked Flack opening up facial building software on his computer.

"Evil" said Carly "He had nasty eyes"

"Did you see what colour they were?" he asked.

"Green" she replied.

"And what colour hair did he have?" he asked.

"Blonde" said Carly "He had a round face"

"Like this?" he asked showing her the face she had started to build on his computer. She nodded "Good" he nodded. They continued to build up the man's face from what Carly had seen of him. And eventually they had a face. "He was wearing a black tracksuit" she added. "He was tall"

"Taller than me or shorter than me?" he asked.

"About the same" she replied.

"Ok. can you tell me what happened?" asked Flack.

"I was under the table" she began "There was a bang and I looked out… there was a man on the floor… and the bad man with the gun. He hurt more people with his gun… and my daddy. Daddy grabbed me and he got hurt by the bad man"

"Ok" he nodded "That's great"

"I want my mommy" she said

"Your granny's coming to pick you up" he replied "I couldn't get hold of your mommy"

"Oh" she sighed. Then she looked up and smiled "Granny!" she squealed before jumping off the chair and running towards her granny. They came over. "Can I take her now?" she asked.

"Of course but she may be needed to identify the man she saw as the shooter when we catch him" Flack explained.

"Ok" the granny nodded.

"Bye" said Carly hugging quickly "Than you for looking after me"

"Bye" he smiled. Carly smiled then went off with her granny. He rested back in her chair and watched them leave. A voice startled him. "We've got a possible suspect in holding"

"We have?" he asked. "Who?"

"Eddie Huntley" she replied.

"Hang on… that's your dad" he rose his eyebrow.

"Yeah I know. He was caught trying to leave the premises" she explained. "He could be a suspect"

"This is the suspect I built with Carly" he showed her the computer generated image of the suspect. "Does it fit your dad's profile?"

"No… oh well he still needs to be interviewed" she shrugged "He's still a witness"

"Do want me to do it?" asked Flack.

"No I'll do it" Adrianna shook her head. She got him from holding and put him into an interrogation room. She went inside and closed the door. Flack was watching on the other side of the glass. "What were you doing there?" she asked.

"They'd hired two of my girls" he shrugged "I went with them and made sure the man who hired them paid because I've had a few girls come back and say the clients have refused to pay them for their services."

"That doesn't explain why were you caught trying to leave the scene" asked Adrianna looking anywhere but her father's eye line. "It's a class d felony to leave a crime scene"

"Its bad press for the clubs" replied Eddie "If the girls and I are seen at a crime scene it isn't going to be good for business is it?"

"So what?" Adrianna hissed "Four people are dead. No gives a damn about the press the clubs are getting."

"I care" he retorted.

"Well I don't and none of us working this case or the families of the four guys who were murdered care" she seethed.

"Don't speak to me like that!" he hissed.

"I'll speak to you however I like" she snapped back. "Did you see the shooter?"

"No" he shook his head.

"Tell me the truth" Adrianna demanded, still refusing to make eye contact with her father. "Because I know you're lying to me"

Flack was watching from the other side of glass, not sure if he should go in and take over because she was getting very pissed with her father. Danny had joined him by now. "Maybe you should go in and take her over before she does something stupid"

"Maybe" said Flack "I'm giving her a chance"

"You should've seen her at the scene" said Danny "She went psycho on him. She told Mike to bring him here and that he could wait to be interviewed. She immediately said he was a suspect. Then she called him an old sod and told mike to get him out of her face"

"She did?" Flack frowned.

"Yeah we asked her why and she snapped at me and said she hated him and that it was none of our business. Then she stormed off in a huff" replied Danny.

"Maybe she has a reason hate him. We don't exactly know much about her" said Flack.

"Well everyone knows her father is a multi-millionaire" said Danny "And that she's filthy rich. Ben said she accepted hand-outs from him every month and doesn't understand why she works"

"Danny has it ever occurred to you it's not about the money?" Flack replied "She probably works because she wants to"

Danny was a little taken aback and shut up after this. He looked at Flack, was he sticking up for Adrianna, daddy's little girl?

Back in the interrogation room Adrianna was still trying to extract the truth from her estranged father. "One more time. I'm going to ask you one more time then I'm going to make sure you're charged with obstruction of justice. Did you see the shooter?"

"Fine I saw the guy" he caved. "He was about six two, six three had blonde hair and green eyes. He was wearing a black tracksuit and carrying a Browning Hi-power nine-millimetre pistol."

"Thank you" she said begrudgingly.

"Can I go now?" he asked.

"Yes. Go and don't come back" she retorted before leaving. She headed for her desk and was followed by Flack and Danny. "Were you watching through the glass?" she asked.

"Yeah" replied Flack.

"Why, don't you trust me to interview my own dad?" she asked.

"Of course I do" he shook his head.

"You got pretty ratty with him in there" said Danny.

"Yeah because all he cares about is those damn clubs" she replied "And the press they'll get because he and two of his girls were caught at a crime scene. It's not all about him and his stupid clubs"

"His clubs earn millions of dollars which he gives to you" said Danny.

"I don't accept my dad's money!" she snapped "I've told you that before!"

"Yeah right. I would accept his money if he was my dad" replied Danny before walking off. Knowing he'd antagonised her.

Adrianna looked at Flack who was stood awkwardly beside her desk. "I don't know why he's so convinced your daddy's little girl"

"Everyone's convinced I'm daddy's little girl" she replied "Just because he's rich and I'm his daughter doesn't mean I'm his little rich girl. Doesn't mean I'm a spoilt little brat but everyone thinks I'm one of those too"

"Well you can be a bit of brat sometimes" he admitted.

"Thanks" she said sarcastically, feeling a bit hurt.

"But not all the time. Doesn't make you a spoilt little brat thought" he added "Look I owe you one, what do you want to do?"

"Pint?" she suggested "I could really do with one"

"We'll go once the shift ends" he nodded.

"Ok great" she smiled slightly. He smiled before heading over to his desk.

The rest of the shift drifted by slowly. The coroner pulled bullets out of the four victims that were consistent with the Browning Hi-Power nine-millimetre pistol Adrianna's father had described. Adam was able to lift prints from them and match them to a man in the system for gun related offences. Adrianna and Flack headed off to make the arrest.

"Theo Bruckheimer open up!" Adrianna shouted knocking on the door. They heard scuffling but the door didn't open. So Flack kicked the door in and they went inside. "Put your hands were I can see them!" she shouted.

"Yeah whatever lady!" he laughed.

"Do as I say!" she replied angrily "Put your hands were I can see them."

Theo put his arms up and Adrianna went over to make the arrest. As she grabbed his arms he elbowed her in the stomach causing her to let go of him. Then he punched her in the face and tried to make a run for it. But Flack quickly caught him and put the cuffs on. "Don't try that again" he said before handing him over to a patrolwoman who took him to the car. "You alright?"

"Never better" she replied sarcastically nursing a split lip. "God that hurt!"

"Yeah he did hit you one hell of a hard" said Flack "I thought he'd knocked you out for a second."

"Let's get back to precinct and question the son of a bitch" said Adrianna.

"Good idea" replied Flack.

So they headed back to the precinct and interview Theo, who eventually confessed to the shootings. Saying he had killed them because they'd disrespected him. Once he'd written a signed confession he was sent back to holding and they clocked off for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Depth Perception

Adrianna met Flack outside the precinct and they headed to a bar. He got the first round in and they found a table. At first they didn't really know what to say to each other. Adrianna finally broke the silence. "Why did you become a cop?"

"My dad was a cop and I always wanted to be like him" Flack replied "I wanted to be one ever since I can remember. You?"

"It's all I ever wanted to do since I can remember. I don't know why. No one in my family is a cop but I had to be different." She replied "My mom didn't want me to be a cop."

"Why not?" he asked.

"She said it wasn't a woman's job and that I wouldn't fit in because I come from a wealthy background and that cops are very hard to marry." Adrianna sighed. "She wanted me to be a lawyer or doctor but I didn't want to do that. The day I got my letter saying I'd been accepted into the police training academy I was so excited, she was very unhappy about it"

FLASHBACK

Flicking through the envelopes Adrianna spotted one addressed to her with the New York police department symbol on it. Excited she tore it open and took the letter out of the envelope and read it diligently. She'd been accepted into the police training academy. She screamed with delight. She jumped in her car and drove straight to her mom's house. After letting herself in she found her mom in the kitchen. "What are you happy about?" she asked.

"I've been accepted mom!" she squealed.

"Into law school?" she asked hopefully.

"No into the police training academy!" she replied gleefully.

"But you applied for law school!" replied her mom.

"Yeah I did but I've been accepted by the police training academy first. So I'm going to be a police officer" said Adrianna.

"We talked about this. It's not a woman's job" her mom, Marla, said angrily.

"I want to be a police officer mom. Not a lawyer or a doctor!" she snapped "It's my life and I make my own decisions"

"Young lady being a police officer is very dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt unnecessarily" replied Marla "Wait until you hear back from law school"

"I only applied to law school to keep you happy. I want to be a police officer!" retorted Adrianna "And it's up to me. It's my choice because it's my career not yours!"

"Adrianna" Marla said sternly "You will wait until the letter from law school arrives and that's final"

"No I won't mom. Get that into your head." Adrianna snapped "It's my life so butt out and mind your own business!"

"Don't talk to me like that!" Marla seethed

"I will if you insist on trying to make my life decisions for me!" Adrianna shouted "I'm going to be a police officer and you can't change my mind!" then she stormed off and headed home once more.

END OF FLASHBACK

"She still hasn't come round to the fact I'm a police officer. She's pleased I'm a detective because I'm out of the uniform" said Adrianna "We're all fine about it now I guess because we don't talk about it. I mean we're not a close as we could be but we still get on. She's still as patronising as ever about it. And she is very picky about who I date."

"That's what moms are for" said Flack.

"What about your mom?" she asked.

"She passed away a few years ago" replied Flack "She died of cancer. I miss her and there's not a day that goes by when I don't think about her"

"Sorry" she said.

"You don't have to be sorry" he shook his head. "We all die eventually. Her life was just cut short."

"We get a lot of that in this job" said Adrianna. "Are you close to your dad?"

"Yeah" replied Flack "He's retired now. We still go to ball games and knock back a few beers together. I don't know how I'll handle it when he passes away. We've always been close… I guess you're not very close to your dad."

"Close I hate him" she replied "We're estranged and have been for years. He's a disgusting human being and I want nothing to with him."

"Why what did he do?" asked Flack.

"I can't" she shook her head.

"Can't what?" frowned.

"I just can't tell you" she sighed. "Look, I'm sorry that I've been snapping at you lately"

"Since the Stephanie Bowden case?" he raised his eyebrow.

"Yes" she nodded. "I overheard you talking to Danny and Lindsay after we'd tied it all up. I heard what they said."

"Oh" he bit his lip, remembering that conversation. He very quickly saw that not only had she heard that conversation, she'd also heard the subtext.

"I know they don't like me so it wasn't a shock to hear but it hurt" she replied heavily. "It shouldn't do because I hear it all the time but it does"

"I think it was because the evidence seemed to back up the girl's version of events and she was very manipulative. She manipulated Lindsay. I think the way she presented herself just made Lindsay empathetic to her. I don't think she wanted to believe she was capable of that" Flack offered his perspective.

"It's not that" Adrianna responded quietly. "I worked sex crimes and saw victims and I understood what Stephanie seemed to be going through. It's just I could see through the lies. I've learnt how to read people and work out when they're lying. It hurt because they couldn't even admit to my face that I was right and bitched about behind my back"

"We shouldn't have" he replied. "I'm sorry"

"You defended me" she looked into his eyes. "Thank you"

He didn't know what to reply so he said: "I didn't know you used to be in sex crimes"

"It was a few years ago now" she nodded. "I was forcibly transferred from the unit to homicide about three years ago"

"Why?" he frowned taking a sip of his beer.

"I struggled to handle suspects appropriately. I used to get too physical with them and I'd lose it too fast in interview" she explained. "I didn't have enough patience to deal with it all. I hit a few suspects when I shouldn't have and I was warned a lot. In the end, after an interview where I totally lost and went for the suspect my captain told me if I didn't transfer that I would be kicked out of the force. He was softer on me than he should've been"

"Why was he soft on you?" he asked.

"Because he knew a bit about me. A bit about my past" She sighed heavily. "A bit nobody knows. It's a bit of a much bigger thing and I think he always knew there was more than I was letting on. If he hadn't known I wouldn't be a cop right now. I still see him from time to time. He's one of the only people I've met in the force who hasn't judged me."

"What did he know?" Flack quizzed. "You can. You can trust me"

She looked deep into his eyes and sighed deeply, something inside told her she could trust him with this. He was the only person who wanted to have a beer with her even if it was because he owed her one. She did like Flack, he wasn't like everyone else. He wasn't as judgemental towards her as everyone else. Judgemental and quick to judge suspects and jump to conclusions but not her. "Ok…when I was an adolescent my dad touched me inappropriately"

"He abused you sexually?" Flack asked, very shocked. In fact he'd almost never been this shocked in his life.

"Yes." She looked down "He would put his hands up my shirt and squeeze my breasts or put his hand up my skirt or down my trousers and touch my vagina and play with it. Sometimes he'd stick his fingers up there and move them around. It really hurt and sometimes it would even bleed. He didn't care"

"That's vile" said Flack, sickened by what her father had done to her when she was a teenager.

"Sometimes he'd walk in on me in the shower and watch me showering" she continued "And sometimes he'd touch me up too. Or masturbate in front of me. It was horrible and he told me not to tell anyone. It went on for three years. It didn't happen every day. I only spent ten days a month at his house and it didn't happen each day I was there. But it happened. I made sure I went to his house less and less but once or twice he came round to moms and touched me. When I was seventeen he raped my best friend. She pressed charges and had a rape kit done. But he paid them a million dollars and she dropped the charges. She moved away with her parents shortly after and I stopped going to my dad's full stop."

"No wonder you hate him" Flack shook his head "I can see why you got so angry with him. He deserved to be treated like a suspect. You were brave to even be in the same room as him after what he did to you"

"Brave yeah right. I just wanted to punish him" said Adrianna "He never got punished for repeatedly molesting me or my best friend."

"Do you accept money from him?" asked Flack.

"No the only time I have ever accepted money from him was when I moved into my own place because he owes me for touching me up when I was a teenager" Adrianna replied "I haven't accepted a dime from him since. I don't want his money or his apologies because it won't erase what he did. I don't talk to him, I don't see him and I don't accept money off him because I've cut him out of my life."

"So Ben was lying when he said you regularly accept money from him and are tight as hell with it?" he confirmed.

"Yes he was lying he only said it because he wants to be rich and expected me to accept my. dad's handouts. He wanted everyone to believe I'm a spoilt little brat when really I'm not. Everyone just thinks I am" said Adrianna.

"You do act like it sometimes" he said.

"I know I do" she sighed "I don't know why I do it because I'm not. I live off my own money, my own hard earned money and no one else's. I give the wrong impression which means everyone at twelfth thinks I'm a spoilt little brat, that I'm daddy's little girl and that I'm a little rich girl."

"Not everyone at twelfth thinks that" said Flack. Flack was different to everyone he worked with for the one simple reason. He did not see her as a spoilt little rich girl. He could see beyond that because he worked with her the most and he had gotten to know her a bit. He knew she paid her bills using her own money, he knew she lived in a regular apartment building and he knew she didn't have a big flashy car. He could see that she probably wasn't what everyone thought she was and he could tell that people insinuating that she was a spoilt little rich girl upset her. He knew what Danny had said earlier about her dad's clubs and her receiving a large sum of the money that they earned, had upset her.

"Yes they do" she sighed.

"No they don't" he shook his head "I mean it probably feels like it but they don't."

"Name one person who doesn't think I'm a spoilt little rich girl" said Adrianna.

"I don't really think you're a spoilt little rich girl" said Flack.

"You don't?" she asked, confused.

"No I don't" he shook his head "It's really judgemental and I've worked with you ever since you arrived. I've gotten to know you a little and I can see beyond the money, the wealthy father and privileged background. Yeah you come from money but it doesn't mean you live the lifestyle. People shouldn't judge what they don't know and don't understand."

"Oh" she said, going slightly red in the face.

"I'll admit when I first met you I believed what I heard and thought you were just a spoilt little rich girl like everyone else who comes from wealthy backgrounds. But now I'm not so sure. I think the more we work together and get to know each other the more my original perception of you disappears" explained Flack.

"If people gave me a chance and got to know me maybe they wouldn't see me as a spoilt little brat" she sighed "Maybe they wouldn't judge me as much"

"Maybe" he said before downing the last of his beer. He got another round and the mood lightened slightly. They enjoyed some friendly banter and joked around until the early hours of the morning. They left the bar around one am, staggering home drunk and reeking of booze having given their livers a good kicking.

The next day at work there was a rumour floating around about the pair of them. Adrianna was at her locker when one of her fellow detectives came up to her. "I heard you and Flack slept together last night. Is it true?"

"Excuse me?!" Adrianna exclaimed.

"Did you really sleep with Flack?" the woman asked.

"No I didn't sleep with him!" Adrianna snapped. "Who told you that bullshit?"

"Brogan" she shrugged. With that Adrianna stormed off to find brogan. When she did she questioned him and he told her he'd heard it from bob who'd heard it from mike who'd heard it from Jonas who'd heard it from Jude who'd heard it from Cass Mulhern, who was known for spreading nasty rumours around the precinct. Knowing this she realised Cass had most likely been the one who'd started the rumour. Feeling annoyed and disrespected she confronted Cass. "Have you been have you been telling people I slept with Flack?" she demanded.

"Yeah so what?" Cass sniggered.

"It's not funny" Adrianna retorted.

"Don't throw a hissy fit" Cass laughed.

"Why have you been telling people I slept with Flack?" she demanded angrily.

"Because I can" Cass shrugged. "Nah, I just thought everyone could do with a laugh. Everyone knows it's not true because we all know he isn't dumb enough to sleep with you."

Adrianna was suddenly breathless, like she'd been punched in the stomach by a heavyweight boxing champion. "You cow" she hissed. Cass laughed happily before tottering off. Adrianna stood there for a moment catching her breath. How dare she say that? It was cruel! And not only that he had been the one who'd taken her out!

Once she had caught her breath, Adrianna made her way over to her desk when she bumped into Flack. "Have you heard the rumour about us sleeping together?" he asked.

"Yes I have and Cass started it for fun" she replied, not adding what Cass had said to her minutes before.

"It's not even funny" said Flack "Even if we had slept together there's no need for everyone in this precinct to know."

"No I know there's not" said Adrianna. "If she does it again I will punch her so hard she won't be able to smile for a month. That'll teach her to start rumours about me"

But the rumour continued to float around and she would hear whisperings that she had paid him because he wasn't the type to sleep with spoilt little brats like her. She set everyone straight, which rubbed nearly everybody up the wrong way.

It had even reached the lab and when Flack headed out to his crime scene he was asked about it. "I heard you and Adrianna slept together last night" said Danny "Honestly I can't believe you'd sleep with her! She's a spoilt little rich girl."

"I didn't sleep with her Danny!" Flack replied "Cass from my precinct started that stupid rumour for fun. She must've seen us heading to the pub together and just assumed that we slept together."

"You went to the pub with her?" asked Danny

"Yeah I owed her one for taking care of the last five witnesses at that stag-do quadruple homicide" replied Flack "And we had a great time. We had a bit of a heart to heart about our personal lives then we had a laugh and got wrecked."

"You had a heart to heart with Adrianna. Are you serious?" Danny said with a very judgemental tone to his voice.

"Yeah so what?" Flack shrugged "You know if you gave her five minutes she's not half bad. I think she's fine"

"She's a spoilt little rich girl" said Danny

"Honestly that's a load of bullshit Danny. I don't know why you're being such a judgemental ass about her" retorted Flack.

"Flack I'm asking you as a friend" replied Danny "Do you have feelings for this woman?"

"What?" Flack frowned. He thought about it for a moment. Ok this was something that was hard to answer. She was an incredibly attractive woman there was no denying that. She had, in his opinion, one of the nicest asses he had ever seen and a lovely pair of breasts. And she had the biggest and most beautiful green eyes and gorgeous brown curls. She had a curvy figure but wasn't too skinny so that you could see her ribs. But aside from the physical she did have a deep and interesting personality which he was keen to explore further. He was quite keen to get to know her more and get past the charade of her brattish behaviour. He was certain it was an act for some reason. And after last night's conversation he was more certain than ever. She'd opened up about her dad to him and they'd gotten on pretty well. He liked Adrianna, there was something about her that really got him and he wanted to know what it was. Every time he saw her he would smile for some reason, and not because she was incredibly sexy, but because she intrigued him. She was a bit of a mystery to him and he quite wanted to solve it. He wasn't sure they were romantic feelings yet, maybe lustful feelings. He was definitely attracted to her and not just because she was sexy. But he didn't want to tell Danny the truth because he was being a judgemental ass. "No of course I don't"

"Thank god" Danny said quietly "Nearly had to have your head tested"

"Stop being such a judgemental ass Danny" Flack said sternly. "You're not usually this judgemental"

"I have a problem with rich people" replied Danny "They keep all their money for themselves and never help the poor, never help the homeless. The people in need living in poverty, living on the streets. No they drive around in big SUV's and live in big, posh apartments with their flat screen TV's, laptops and iPhones. It's not fair"

"So you dislike Adrianna because she comes from a rich background?" asked Flack "You think because she was privileged as a child she's a selfish cow who doesn't help people and leaves people to suffer?"

"Well yeah" said Danny

"You judgemental ass" Flack shook his head.

Danny didn't reply and continued on processing the scene.

A few days later Flack and Adrianna went out for another beer. Making sure they weren't seen they met around the corner and went from there. They ordered in a round and found a table where they chatted over their beers. They ended up talking until nearly three am the next morning when they were ejected from the bar by the landlord. He walked her back to her apartment and said goodnight to her before heading home himself.

Thankfully this time there were no rumours floating around about them which was one hell of a relief. People would just make unjust judgements about them again and assume all the wrong things as usual. Not only that, she would end up on the receiving end of their colleagues cruel taunts. Something which happened frequently. And he couldn't deal with Danny's judgemental assiness.

Meeting up for a quick beer or a long few beers, became a sort of regular thing between them. Adrianna started to feel like maybe not everyone thought she was a spoilt little rich girl. He obviously didn't think she was because if he did he wouldn't go out for a beer and a chat with her. She was also starting to realise something else, she was developing feelings for him which she never expected she would. Not like this anyway. She had always liked him, he was the kind of guy she liked, funny, street smart, sarcastic, honest, and firm but fair when he needed to be. She was falling for him. She liked everything about him. She loved his cheeky sense of humour and his sarcastic comments. She liked his smile and his big blue eyes. But most of all she loved his personality. It was perfect to her.

And he was starting to realise the same thing. He was developing feelings for her because he was slowly but surely falling for her. The more they went out for a beer and talked and got to know each other, the more he got to know her. This led to her doing something she struggled with. She let him see who she was and he got to know who she really was. And the real her, he liked very much. So the more he got to know her, the real her, the more he liked her. When she was with him she dropped her spoilt little rich girl charade and became just another regular citizen. She wasn't self-centred, vain or obsessed with money. She had desires to help the homeless and had been involved in a scheme to help them get into shelters and rebuild their lives. She didn't slag people off or talk about people as if she were better than them. He knew all she wanted to do was be accepted by people and for people to believe she wasn't a spoilt little rich girl. He liked her true personality, who she really was, because that real person under that charade was beautiful. Was perfect and she couldn't see it.

 _Soul-mates_

 _Are the people who bring out the best in_

 _You_

 _They are not perfect but_

 _They are always perfect for_

 _You_

 _\- James Allen_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Feelings

Soon it had been three months since Flack and Adrianna had gone out for their first beer together. Now they were more or less the best of friends, much to surprise and disapproval of everyone else in the precinct. Some often told Flack, even Danny, he needed his head testing for being friends with her. To which he would reply "At least I give a damn about her unlike everyone else. What's wrong with giving a damn about someone?"

It was a Friday night and they had been out for a beer and chat at the pub. They'd only had one as they were both shattered from both pulling doubles and working a very complicated case which was taking ages to figure out and were still no closer to a suspect. Which was frustrating because they were certain he was going to kill again. They both wanted to have a beer, a chat then curl up in bed and sleep until their alarm clocks woke them up again.

He walked her back to her place and went with her up to her apartment, which he didn't usually do. She let herself in and went to go inside. Then she turned around again. "Do you want to come in?" she asked.

"Why not?" he shrugged before going inside. She went into the kitchen and he looked around, studying the apartment. Small and modest, very homely and comfortable. As he looked around he realised something. This apartment represented who she was. While it looked quite ordinary and stereotypical it had so much to offer. Underneath it all it was exceeding the bounds of expectation and just a little bit perfect. Just like Adrianna. Everyone thought she was just an ordinary little rich girl, so was there for highly stereotyped. But underneath all of that she was a person, a beautiful person with real feelings.

She came back into the room and saw him checking the place out. "Not what you were expecting?" she asked.

"I don't really know what I was expecting but I like this" he replied. "It looks nice. It feels really homely"

"Thanks" she smiled "Wine?"

"Go on" he smiled. She filled two glasses with wine and handed one to him. They started talking again and soon the amount of wine in that bottle diminished until it was completely and utterly empty. "Oh we've finished the bottle" she slurred slightly picking it up. "Probably too late to start another one"

"Probably too tired to drink anymore" he replied getting to his feet. "I should probably get home"

"You can stay. I don't mind. I have a spare room" she yawned.

"Thanks" he nodded. He moved over to her and they stood face to face. Then they moved closer together so their lips could meet in a gentle kiss. Soon the kiss was growing more passionate and before long they were passionately tonguing each other. They wrapped their arms around one another and held each other tightly. She slowly lifted her legs and wrapped them tightly around his waist as they kissing each other. She pulled away and looked into his eyes. She released her legs from his waist and rested back onto her feet. He looked at her confused. She took his hand and without a word led him into her bedroom. She closed the door and smiled at him. She moved towards him and placed her lips back on his and started kissing him again. The kiss grew more passionate and before long they were passionately tonguing each other again.

Without thinking they started undressing each other and it wasn't too long before they were both naked. Now naked she lifted her legs up and wrapped them tightly around his waist. They rubbed their naked bodies together and felt an electricity run down both their spines. Holding each other close she allowed him into her body before stiffening up. Soon they were rocking backwards and forwards making passionate love to one another. They moved over to the bed and fell down onto it and continued making love to one another.

After they finished making love they drifted off to sleep with smiles on their exhausted faces.

The following morning Adrianna woke first. She sat up in bed, the events of the previous night a little fuzzy. She turned her head and saw Flack lying next to her. She lifted the blanket up and confirmed her suspicions. He was naked and so was she. Then she remembered everything. They'd kissed then she'd led him in here where they'd kissed again. Then they'd undressed each other and had sex with each other before falling asleep in her bed. She climbed out of bed and pulled her knickers on and pulled a t-shirt on before making her way out of her bedroom. She made her way into her kitchen and filled the kettle with water then put it on to boil so she could make a cup of coffee. She pulled open a cupboard and took out a box of cereal and sourced a bowl. She poured some cornflakes into a bowl then poured some milk in after. Then she sourced a mug and tipped some coffee granules into as the kettle binged. She poured the boiling water into the mug and stirred it up then poured some milk into the mug. Then with her coffee and cereal she sat down at her kitchen table and started to eat. Her mind running over last night's events. She couldn't believe it had actually happened. She didn't think he liked her enough to sleep with her. He had been drunk so maybe he had just done it absentmindedly. "People do a lot of stupid things they regret when they're drunk" she sighed. She didn't want to be some drunken one night stand.

Meanwhile Flack was stirring in her bed. Eyes open he stretched his arms out and looked around. Noticing he was in an unfamiliar place he sat up and looked round for answers. Then he remembered he'd gone out for a beer with Adrianna then come back to her place with her. Then they'd kissed and ended up having sex. Unprotected sex. He reached for his boxers and pulled them on before pulling his jeans and shirt back on. He made his way out of her bedroom and found his way into her kitchen where she was sat at the kitchen table. She saw him and wasn't sure what to say at first. Then she said. "Morning"

"Morning" he replied moving over to the kitchen table and sliding into a chair opposite her. "Last night…"

"Yes we had sex" she said "It was… great"

"It was?" he frowned.

"Yeah" she nodded "It felt amazing to me"

"Oh" he said.

"Why?" she asked "Did you think it was a mistake?"

"No" he shook his head "I don't think it was a mistake. I don't regret it at all"

"You don't?" Adrianna smiled.

"No" he smiled back "You?"

"No regrets here" she smiled brightly. They smiled at each other. Adrianna's heart almost burst with happiness. She wasn't just some drunken one night stand.

After having some breakfast Flack left and headed home to freshen up and get changed. He wasn't ashamed of sleeping with her, far from it. But the comments people would make were not worth the trouble. He'd rather make it look like it hadn't happened than endure the comments about how stupid he was to have slept with her. He didn't want people slagging her off again either. They'd done that when it hadn't actually happened so he could just imagine the things they'd say to her now it had really happened. He really couldn't understand what some of them had against her. She, underneath it all, was a very beautiful person. She had a big heart and a caring mind set. She was not what people thought she was at all. Even if he was the only one who could see it that made it all the more worthwhile getting to know her and developing these feelings that don't go away.

They worked together and organised their next beer date for a few nights later. They kept smiling at each other all day and couldn't keep their eyes of each other. Yet no one cottoned on they had slipped into bed together the night before.

After several days they did finally catch their killer before he claimed another victim and celebrated by having a drink with Danny, Lindsay and Stella. While Danny and Lindsay didn't really to talk to her Stella did. Funnily enough she'd never really spoken with Stella properly before because they hadn't really worked to together. She found out that Stella didn't seem to have a problem with whom she was.

On their next case she managed to irritate Danny even more. A young man had been found dead in a hotel room. He'd had sex shortly before dying and they'd found the girl who told them it was a one night stand. She then confessed to stabbing him in the chest six times because he'd told her it hadn't meant anything and to leave. "That's what happens when you have sex with the wrong person" said Danny.

"Yeah most people don't stab their one night stands when they tell the other person it meant nothing" said Flack.

"True" said Danny "I guess she's just a psycho"

"Danny" said Adrianna.

"What she stabbed her one night stand to death because he told her it was a mistake" replied Danny "She's a psycho. I mean even if I had one night stand and she told me it meant nothing I wouldn't stab her to death"

"Just because she stabbed him to death doesn't automatically make her a psycho" replied Adrianna "Something must have made her snap. People don't just kill people for that"

"Yeah they do" said Danny. "I saw a guy killed for smiling"

"Well then I don't get people" said Adrianna.

"You don't get regular people you mean" Danny said coldly you "You know working class people who have to really work to earn their keep in life. Pay the rent and support a family"

"I live like you Danny. I pay my living costs with my wages!" she hissed

"Yeah right" he shook his head.

"Μπάσταρδε Danny. Μπορείτε επικριτική κάθαρμα! Σε μισώ!" Adrianna scowled. Being fluent in Greek was a gift and sometimes it was very helpful because she could swear at people and they didn't have a clue what she was saying.

"What the hell language is that?" asked Danny "And what did you just say to me?"

"I can speak Greek fluently" she smirked "And you really don't want to know"

"Tell me Adrianna" he demanded.

"No" she shook her head.

"Tell what you just hissed at me in Greek!" seethed Danny.

"You'll hate me even more if I tell you so I'm not saying anything" she replied firmly. Danny glared at her before walking away in a huff.

"Go on. What did you say to him?" asked Flack.

"I said you bastard Danny, you judgemental bastard. I hate you" Adrianna replied.

"Owh" Flack smirked slightly. "I guess he deserves that"

A few nights later they headed off on their next beer date, their first proper date in the dating sense. It went well and they laughed over a few pints. "I didn't know you could speak Greek until the other day"

"My mom was born in Greece and she speaks it fluently. I lived in Greece for a year. My mom and stepdad took me over there when I was five and we came back when I was six. By the time I came back I was speaking Greek as fluently as I could speak English." Adrianna explained "I love speaking Greek. When I'm at my mom's we mostly speak Greek. My sisters are both fluent and my brothers fluent. You don't speak any other languages do you?"

"I can speak some Irish" he replied "My grandfather taught me before he died"

"Any interesting phrases?" asked Adrianna.

"Ah tú bunch idiots" said Flack "It means 'ah you bunch of idiots'. It was his favourite phrase back in the day. You'd be sitting in the back of his car and you'd end up in a traffic jam and he'd just yell that out. Especially if there were workmen doing road works. I used to think it was hilarious and I would sit there pissing myself with laughter until my grandma told me to be quiet. We almost had it put on his headstone when he passed away."

"I can just see you laughing your head off now" she smiled.

"If I ever have kids I am passing the phrase on" he laughed "Just so I can hear someone else saying it. What phrases would you pass on?"

"I don't know" she replied "But I would teach them Greek so they can swear and have no one know what they've said."

"Yeah that's the beauty of second languages that no one knows realises you've insulted them" Flack laughed "My grandfather taught me a bunch of Irish insults so when I was at school I used to go round shouting them out. Unfortunately one of my teachers was Irish and told my parents and they made me stop shouting out the Irish insults."

"Bummer. I never got caught out at school but my dad, before he was a pervert, and my stepmom hated it when I spoke Greek when I was at their house" she sighed "My stepmom would yell at me and my brother for speaking in Greek to each other. Though we were usually insulting her anyway. I think it frustrated her because she didn't have a clue what we were saying and didn't know if we were insulting her or not. I never liked her."

"Least you don't have to see her anymore" said Flack.

"Yeah and I'm glad of it" replied Adrianna "There are some people in life you'd just rather of never met. And she's one of them and so is my dad. My stepdad is fine and we get on well. He's always been more a dad to me than my own."

"I think some people just weren't meant to be parents and that some were" said Flack "I mean you see that in this job enough. Stepparents annoyed with their stepchildren. Most parents are proud their kids can speak a second language not telling them off for it. My parents were happy with my grandpa teaching me Irish and me speaking it… apart from when I was insulting them with it"

"Yeah" she sighed "Shame they don't work that out before they procreate and not afterwards. Once you've screwed up a child. You've screwed up a child. You can never undo that damage"

"No but you can learn to live with it and move on from it and be a better person than they ever were" replied Flack. "You can be whoever you want to be. There's nothing to stop you."

"The day I made my own decisions in life I felt in control for the first time in my life. I didn't do what my parents wanted to do. I did what I wanted to do. I tried to become my own person and breakaway from my background" said Adrianna "I tried to be different"

"Different can be awesome" he smiled.

She smiled back at him, she felt like her heart was beating so fast that it was just going to burst right out of her chest.

After a couple of beers they left the pub and he walked her home. As they walked it started to snow. "It's beautiful" she smiled holding her hand out to catch a snowflake.

"Just like you" he thought. "Just like you Adrianna". Smiling he held out his hand to her. She looked at it before taking it gently in hers and holding it tightly. He looked at her, her smile so bright it lit up the night.

They walked back to her apartment and said goodnight. They kissed each other before saying goodnight again then he left. Smiling she closed the door and let herself get lost in the memories of tonight. She still hadn't figured out why he was different in how he perceived her. He'd said he thought it was very judgemental and didn't think people she prejudge what they don't know. He'd also said he could see beyond her background. Maybe it was because he'd given her five minutes and gotten to know her a little. Maybe it was simply because he was different and wasn't a judgemental asshole, like most of the people they worked with. Whatever it was it was a good thing.

A week later he took her out to dinner. She slipped into a simple white dress and black heels. She'd tamed her brown locks into a neat bun on top of her head and had applied minimal make-up and was waiting for him to arrive. As she fiddled with her handbag there was a knock on the door. She walked over to the door and pulled it open to find him standing on the other side smiling. Looking rather smart in his suit and jacket. "You do scrub up well" she smiled

"You don't look too bad yourself" he grinned "You should probably grab a jacket. It's freezing out there."

"Hmm I have glanced out the window today and had the heating on full blast" she replied grabbing her coat. "Hope you didn't have bodies outside"

"Yes and it was ice cold at three o'clock this morning" her replied "The girls body was almost frozen like an ice cube. Everyone was moaning about cold. I think the hot air coming out of their mouths kept them warm enough to survive"

"I bet you and Danny were gasbagging away to keep yourselves warm" she smirked.

"No he wasn't there. He's caught the flu. Apparently. And so has Lindsay. Apparently they've both caught the flu" he laughed. "Nothing suspicious there at all"

"Oh yeah. They're shagging each other" she giggled.

"Poetic as ever" he smiled as they walked down the corridor towards the elevator. "So me and mac were having this very weird conversation about dogs and how likely it is for them both to have caught the flu at the same time."

"Sounds like it was fun" she replied.

"My nuts were freezing. I thought they'd caught frostbite" he laughed. "And were about to fall off"

"What were you doing? Standing there in you boxers?" she asked, laughing. "Or without any trousers on at all"

"My trousers don't insulate me very well" he cringed "Should've worn two pairs of pants to protect my assets from frostbite and possible falling off"

"They won't fall off" she laughed

"Good to know" he laughed as they exited the building and headed to his car. He opened the door so she could get in then closed it once she was in before climbing into the driver's side. He started the engine and they headed to the restaurant. They ate and chatted over a bottle of wine before asking for the bill and leaving.

It was too cold to go for any sort of walk so they went back to her apartment and concluded their date. He kissed her goodnight before leaving.

A week later it was Christmas and by then they'd been on two more successful dates. Adrianna had it off and was spending it with her family at the family home. Some of her family Christmases were a nightmare because her sisters bickered like mad, her brother and stepdad spent all day winding the hell out of each other and her mom tried to make everyone happy. Usually trying to get them to sing Christmas carols. And she was just stuck in the middle. He on the other hand had not got Christmas day off and was going to be working. Usually Christmas day was quiet and there weren't usually any homicides to investigate. So it could be a very slow day.

Today wasn't going to be much different. When she got there she let herself in and found her mom in the kitchen slaving away over the dinner. "Hey mom" she smiled "Merry Christmas"

"Merry Christmas" Marla smiled. Marla was a little taller than she was. She shared her mother's oval shaped face and green eyes. Marla had short brown locks resting on her shoulders. She bore the wrinkles of the extra years.

"How's everything?" she asked.

"Hectic!" Marla replied. "I'm going insane. Elena and Sofia have already been at each other's throats".

"Why am I not surprised?" Adrianna laughed. "What about Alex and dad?"

"Alex isn't here yet. He should be here any minute though" replied Marla almost dropping a bowl of stuffing. "I've got Kyron on a tight leash this year. Alex is going through a bad time at work. They're making redundancies in the DA's office and it's not looking good"

"But Alex is a great attorney. They can't fire him!" Adrianna shook her in disbelief.

"Someone made an allegation that he does favours for you" said Marla "Thinks he slips you search warrants under the table. Things like that"

"He doesn't. We barely ever come into contact at work" said Adrianna "The prick who alleges that is making up bullshit"

"I know" Marla sighed as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it" Adrianna offered before going to open the door to let Alex in. "Hey Alex. Heard the bad news. I'm sorry"

"No good news" he smiled "They're making john, the guy who said I do favours for you, redundant for lying. My jobs safe"

"Great news!" she smiled back.

"Auntie Anna!" a voice chirped happily "It's Christmas!"

"I know. You excited?" she smiled ruffling the little boy's hair. He was her nephew, Christianos. Alex had brought him and his twin brother Pax, who were four, with him. He'd split from their mother when they'd been a year old but remained a loyal father to them. They had his devilish sense of humour and were always causing trouble. The relation was obvious. The boys darted off to the living room and they heard squealing. They went into the living room where Pax, Christianos and Elena's daughter phoenix, also four, were jumping up and down at the pile of presents by the enormous, oversized tree. "Calm down Phoenix!" Elena laughed. Elena was twenty one, glamorous and pampered. She was a little taller than herself but they shared the same shaped face. Elena had her father's brown eyes and long dark hair. Elena was always meticulously groomed, always had her nails done professionally, had her hair done once a week and didn't work. Mostly because she enjoying living a rich lifestyle and their mom and dad supported her like mad. Though she'd once had a part time job she'd quit after Phoenix had been born and Phoenix's father, Marco Williams was a millionaire heir, was minted for life. They lived in a luxury three bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side. Marco had a business degree and owned half of his father's business so they were minted for life. Elena and Marco were engaged and were throwing a massive wedding in a few months' time. Elena drove a massive range rover SUV while she drove a three door Peugeot 206. They were very different.

"Boys come away from the tree!" Alex fretted knowing his sons. Alex was thirty five and was an ADA in the district attorney's office. He was fairly tall, standing around 5"11. He had short dark hair and shared her green eyes. He had taken their father's rounder facial shape but not any of his traits. He didn't live a luxury apartment, just a reasonable sized two bedroom thing in lower Manhattan. Enough room for the boys when they came to stay with him. He didn't much care for the rich way of life, like her and drove a red, five door Volkswagen golf. The boys' mom wasn't rich at all, she was just a regular working class citizen who worked as a nurse at Trinity general. He made sure he always supported her with extra money on his child maintenance fees. Alex was integrated into regular citizenry and didn't give a thought to his privileged background. They were much more alike.

"Hey you two" a voice said. Adrianna turned round and saw Sofia standing in the doorway in her pyjamas. Sofia was seventeen and a right little drama queen. Sofia was the same height as herself and shared her green eyes. She, like herself, had dark curly hair. She had taken her the heart facial shape of her father. She enjoyed her lavish way of living and had all the latest gadgets. She drove a flashy little BMW Kyron and Marla had bought her for her sixteenth. She always bought the most expensive clothes, shoes and bags. She liked having her nails, hair and makeup done before she went out. Although she did seem to be a little less into as Elena. Although the difference was subtle. They were very different. Though despite their differences they were close and both shared a certain dislike of their mother's ways unlike Elena who didn't.

"Hey Sofia" Adrianna smiled.

The morning drifted by and soon they had lunch. As they ate Elena prised apart her sisters' private life. "So sis. You met anyone nice?"

"As a matter of fact I have" Adrianna smiled.

"What's his name?" asked Elena.

"Don Flack" Adrianna replied. She took out her phone and showed them a picture she had of her and Flack from their date last night. They'd gone ice-skating at the portable ice ring in central park.

"He's fit" Elena smiled.

"He's so cute" Sofia drooled "How old is he sis?"

"Twenty eight Sofia" she replied "I think he might me a bit too old for you"

"He's only twelve years older than me!" said Sofia "Age is only a number. And he's three years younger than you!"

"Whatever" Adrianna laughed.

"Is he minted?" Sofia asked, grinning.

"No he's not minted!" Adrianna shook her head in disbelief. "I don't like guys who are minted. You know that!"

"So what does that hot guy do?" asked Sofia.

"He's a detective" replied Adrianna.

"He's a fellow cop?" asked Marla.

"Are you kidding me?" Elena and Sofia asked in union.

"What?" Adrianna frowned. "What's so bad about that?"

"The last cop you dated only wanted your money" said Elena "He probably just wants the same"

"He doesn't" Adrianna defended "I know he doesn't."

"I don't know why you chose to work in the police force when you have money in the bank" said Elena.

"I have money in the bank. But I don't accept my dad's money or moms. I pay my living costs with my own hard earned money. I don't want to live off other people's money and sit around all day doing nothing." Said Adrianna "I've always wanted to be cop. Ever since I started talking. I work because I want to"

"Yeah because you're weird" Sofia laughed "Honestly your dad is a successful multimillionaire and he would happily support you yet you want to work. In the police force of all things. You're nuts!"

"You sound like mom" Adrianna scolded. "It's my choice. I love what I do and do you know what Sofia it's better than sitting round on my arse all day doing nothing let everybody else pay my way!"

"I think we should drop the subject" Kyron interjected "Before we get into an argument and fall out. Sofia do not give me those eyes!"

"Yes daddy" she sulked. Adrianna glanced at Sofia and felt something swirling round inside of her. It wasn't hatred but a kind of sympathy for Sofia. She'd been brought up this way and had been taught this was the way she should live. So had she but she'd broken out of it as a teenager when she'd demanded to go public school. Sofia was in private school and didn't seem to have any intentions of breaking out of it.

The issue was then dropped and the rest of the day went smoothly. Well apart from her mom taking her aside briefly to ask for further details on her new man.

Elsewhere Flack was bored out of his mind because there were no cases to investigate and he was itching to get home. To fill the dragging time he caught up with his seemingly endless paperwork, which cleared his desk up nicely. Finally he clocked off and headed home. Looking forward to cracking open a beer and eating Chinese takeaway in front of the TV. Seeing what crappy Christmas television they had on before watching something on a DVD he'd probably seen a dozen times before going to bed.

On the way he grabbed a chicken-chow mien then drove home. He went up to his apartment. When he got there someone was sitting, waiting outside. Adrianna. "What're you doing here?" he asked "I thought you were at your mom's"

"I was but then it was time to leave" she replied standing up. "I thought I'd come by and wish you a happy Christmas"

"Oh" he smiled. He unlocked his front door and they went inside. They rested down on the sofa and he devoured his chicken-chow mien in minutes. "Good day?"

"Oh you know my mom and my sisters were prying about in my private life again" she laughed slightly. "I told them I'd met someone and my sisters and my mom disapprove of you because you're a cop and you're not filthy rich. But I don't care. They think you're after my money. I said you're not."

"I don't want to be filthy rich" he replied "And I'm not after yours or anyone else's money."

"I know" she sighed. "I haven't gotten you anything but I feel like I would like to give you something"

"Third dates" he grinned "Which was actually yesterday but who's counting."

"Are usually when you consummate a relationship" she smiled.

"We already did that" he grinned.

"How do you feel about that?" she grinned.

"Sexually relieved" he laughed. "My bedrooms that way" he pointed to a door. She kicked her shoes off and dropped her coat onto a hook before making her way into his bedroom. Him following closely behind.

They stripped off and climbed into his bed. They wrapped their arms round each other and cuddled each other before they started kissing each other. Then before they knew it they were having sex. When they were finished they lay on their backs smiling at the ceiling. "That was the best Christmas present anyone has ever given me" he grinned

"Yeah" she smiled resting her head on his chest "I try my best"

"I know" he said softly. She looked down at his torso and noticed a scar stretching across his abdomen.

"How did you get this" she asked pointing to the scar.

"I was involved in a massive explosion" he explained "Ended up with a hole in my gut the size of Salt Lake City. I nearly died. Had to have a shed load of stitches. I thought the scar would heal up and disappear. But I'm stuck with it for life because the doctor said it's permanent. It's horrible isn't it?"

"No" she shook her head. "It's beautiful. It means you survived. That you're a survivor. You should be proud of it".

"It usually scares the women off the moment they see it. They see it, freak and I don't usually see them again" he admitted.

"People do not find scars beautiful because they do not understand them" said Adrianna "If they freak at your scars then they are not right for you."

Then she leaned over and gently kissed it. He smiled at her. The women he had attempted relationships with since the explosion had all freaked at that scar and would never give him the chance to explain it before leaving and never contacting him again. She was the first one to accept it properly. And that was amazing.

She rested her head back onto his chest and placed her hand on his chest next to her head and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. And like that they drifted off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Adrianna's Scars

A few weeks had passed since Christmas and they were now a couple. It was a secret. Nobody knew. It was easier this way for now. Adrianna was happy, happier than she had been in such a long time. For the first time in her life she felt like somebody really did love her. It didn't feel like she was being used or made an example of. She was in a relationship with somebody she wanted to be with. Sure she'd chosen Ben but he'd turned out to be a bad egg. She'd known when she'd started that relationship he had a reputation for being a bad boy. But she'd been trying to show her parents she could be happy with someone that hadn't been picked by them. This time was different though. She was sure Flack was not going to turn out the way Ben had. She was going to make it work. But this meant she would also have to come clean to him about a few things from her past.

Like the fact that as a teenager she had been a self-harmer. From the age of thirteen she'd taken knives, scissors, razors and even garden tools to her arms and thighs, repeatedly slashing her skin. She still had the scars to prove it. Not that people ever saw them. She made sure of that because she was ashamed of them in some ways. She had cut herself because her upbringing had been so calamitous. Her father had sexually abused her from the age of eleven and her mother had controlled her life.

For five years she'd suffered horrendous sexual abuse at the hands of her sick father. He'd touched her, made her touch him, masturbated in front of her, raped her more than once and forced her to perform oral sex acts on him. Not only that, he had always been handy with his fists which both she and older brother Alex had been on the receiving end of to make them behave. This had started earlier in her childhood, before the sexual abuse. She had lost count of the number of times Eddie had abused them. He'd punched them, kicked them, and even whipped them with belts. Eddie had dragged her around by her long hair. She suffered several breakage, including most of her. Their stepmother Marcella, had even joined in as she'd hit them too.

Alex had in fact hospitalised their father after one too many beatings and had stabbed him in pure anger when he'd caught him raping Adrianna. Their father, Eddie had tried pressing charges but the DA had refused to go ahead due to allegations of rape and child abuse made by Alex, who at the time had been nineteen and a first year law student. The allegations had been backed up by a worrying number of ER visits for both Adrianna and Alex. So Alex had never been punished for something that in their eyes Eddie had deserved. But Marla had still forced her to go her father's house despite the sickening allegations of rape and abuse against him. Adrianna hated her mother for this.

A case came along which prompted her to open up to him. A multimillionaire husband and wife and their teenage daughter had been found murdered in their five million dollar penthouse apartment. They'd all had their throats slashed; the daughter had almost been decapitated. The scene itself was pretty grim. Danny and Stella were processing it. Danny was processing the bedroom and Adrianna was in there, getting a good look at the scene. "What I wouldn't give for a place like this" said Danny snapping photographs of the deceased couple. "If I had five million dollars"

Adrianna looked at him and rolled her eyes. "I saw that" he hissed.

"Saw what?" she smirked.

"You rolling your eyes" he replied. "I bet your apartment is like this. I bet you live in a million dollar penthouse apartment with maids and butlers"

"I do not" she snapped, taking immediate offence.

"Yeah you do, don't lie" he laughed.

"No I don't" she seethed. It made her angry that everybody assumed that just because she was rich she lived the lifestyle. She didn't. "I live in a two bedroom apartment. It's small. I don't have a maid and I definitely don't have a butler"

"Yeah right" Danny scoffed.

"You're so judgemental" she hissed.

Eventually they moved into the daughter's room, which was littered with medals and rosettes. Her walk in closet was open so she went inside. It was filled with hellishly expensive dresses, bizarre costumes and a ridiculous amount of beauty products ranging from eyeliner to lip liner, hair extensions to hairspray, and hair ribbons to huge tiaras. Adrianna looked around, studying the walk-in wardrobe not realising she'd slipped into a trance like state. This girl was a pageant princess. It was the only thing that would explain all of this. As a former pageant girl herself she knew. She'd worn dresses and costumes like these once. There were also many trophies, some small, some huge. She'd once had many of these herself too.

"Adrianna" a voice said "Adrianna are you ok?"

"What?" She frowned jolting from her trance.

"You ok?" Flack asked looking at her.

"Yeah I'm fine" she shrugged "Why?"

"You were in a trance" he replied.

"Was I?" She asked.

"Yeah" He nodded. "Danny wants you out of here just in case there's evidence in here"

"He doesn't want me contaminating the crime scene that's what you mean" she raised her eyebrow. "And he couldn't even be bothered to come and tell me himself". She laughed slightly before following him out. They left the apartment and headed down to the car. Once they were safely tucked inside it she asked him a question. "What are you doing after work tonight?" she asked.

"Nothing" he shook his head. "Why?"

"There's something I want to tell you" she replied.

"You're not pregnant are you?" he asked quickly.

"No!" she laughed shaking her head "Of course I'm not. I'm on the pill and I have an IUD fitted. No way am I getting pregnant anytime soon. It's just something I need to be open with you about."

"Ok" he smiled "I'll be round as soon as I finish"

"Thanks" she smiled softly before pecking his lips.

After she finished her shift she headed home and dug deep in her wardrobe before pulling out a box of photo albums. She took the oldest album out of the box and flipped it open. She looked at the picture on the first page. It was of her aged about four. She was wearing a diamanté pink dress and little white heels with her hair pulled into a tight bun upon her head, wearing a thick layer of make-up. She stared at the picture and felt sick with fury. She'd been taking part in a beauty pageant at the time and she had hated it. Her mother had entered her into her first pageant aged about two and she'd done her last at fifteen. She had hated taking part in them and repeatedly told her mother this but she'd never listened. She'd all forced her to do them. Threatened her, blackmailed her. If she didn't do them she'd have to spend more time with her rapist father. That was enough to scare her into doing them. Only some of the male judges and helpers were just as bad as her father. Vile perverts. Some of them had touched her the way her father had. She'd also been raped backstage during one of her pageants when she'd been fourteen.

She flipped through the pages and looked at all the images of her taken during various pageants. As she reached the pictures from her teen years; the emotion inside her swirled violently. She felt sick at the memories. As her age in the pictures progressed her body changed too. Not just the usual changes you'd expect from a growing girl though. While she developed normally the other changes were far from normal. Her weight steadily declined through the images and cuts appeared on her wrists. Her face had grown gaunt and her arms and legs had become skeletal. As she stared at a picture taken during the last pageant she'd taken part in tears burned in her eyes. She was all but a skeleton in the picture, her eyes were sunken, her skin was nearly grey, her arms were bonier than ever and her hair was receding. Suddenly she burst into hysterical tears at the memory. She'd been anorexic at fifteen. Her mother had put her on a strict diet aged five and by the time she was thirteen she'd become so unsure of what was normal, coupled with the fact she was being sexually abused, she compensated by not eating all.

Flack arrived while she was still in her bedroom. He knocked on the door and waited for her to answer.

Adrianna heard the knocking from her bedroom and jumped off the bed, eyes red raw from crying and went to let him in. She pulled the door open. His face dropped slightly when he saw her. He wasn't quite sure what to say. "I know" she mumbled "I'm a mess… come in"

So he in he went and she closed the front door. "Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yeah I'm fine" she nodded wiping her cheeks "I was just looking at some old pictures". She took his hand and led him into her bedroom. She picked the photo album up off the bed and looked at it for a moment then she handed it to him so he could see just who she was.

She pointed to the picture of her during her last pageant and he looked closely at it. "Is this you?" He looked up at her wearing a slightly shocked expression upon his face.

"Yeah" she nodded, exhaling heavily. "That's me."

"You looked terrible" he admitted. "You're like a skeleton. I've seen dead people that look more alive than you do"

"I know I do" she sighed heavily "I was anorexic. I used to starve myself or I'd make myself sick if I ate."

"How old were you then?" He asked.

"I was fifteen there" she replied "I was taking part in a beauty pageant. I started doing them when I was two. That picture so from the last one I did."

"Why did you stop?" He quizzed.

"A few days after I did that pageant I collapsed and ended up in hospital on a feeding tube." She explained "When I was discharged my mom checked me into a specialist clinic for eating disorders for four months."

"Four months?" his eyes widened. "Was it like being sectioned?"

"Yes" she nodded, looking down at the ground. "It was a live-in facility. They watched me closely to make sure I didn't hide food or things like. I had therapy. A lot of therapy and I started to get better. We pinpointed the cause of my eating disorder being from my mom controlling me and forcing me into those pageants when I was a child"

"Did you enjoy them?" He pried.

"No I hated them" she told him "My mom made me do them. She was very persuasive. I did them to keep her happy and get her approval. When I was really little I didn't care but the older I got the more I hated them. And she blackmailed me when I was older. She told me if I didn't take part I'd have to see my dad more often. That persuaded me because I didn't want to see him anymore that I had to. I used to tear at my dresses and my hair. My mom would get so mad at me. I hated being squeezed into those dresses and learning all those damn dance routines. She made go to dance lessons four times a week and singing lessons three times a week. And the male judges were all creepy perverts. Some of them touched me the way my dad used to and when I was fourteen I was raped by one of the male helpers. I absolutely fucking hated it all. She had to drag me there kicking and screaming, have my stepdad restrain me from hitting out and biting her. She used to cover my body with concealer to cover all my bruises because I liked being a bit of a tomboy. She got especially mad when I cut all of my hair off."

"You cut all of your hair off?" he raised his eyebrow. "Going through a phase?"

"No I wasn't actually. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that but that's another issue that I need to talk about. I cut it off; she got pissed and made me wear the itchiest wigs possible. I tried burning them but she would just buy more. My little sisters loved it. I remember when my sister Elena took part, she loved it. She loved getting dolled up, having her hair done and wearing all those dresses. I used to beg my mom to stop making me take part in these pageants now that she had Elena and Sofia but like the cow that she can be she refused. I hated her. She would never listen to me."

"How did you end up anorexic?" he asked looking curious.

"She put me on a strict diet when I was five and berated me if I ate sweets or chocolate. She weighed me three times a week and every day the week before a pageant. She took me off it eventually but I didn't know how to eat normally. And I had mom who controlled my whole life. I was so angry and confused that I started starving myself and became obsessed with my weight. I weighed four stone eleven pounds in that picture. I was so ill I could barely walk."

"Why would you let yourself get that thin?" He asked baffled as to why anyone would allow themselves to end up like that.

"Because I couldn't help it" she looked down at the floor in shame "I was ill. I had anorexia. Once you're in its grips it's hard to escape. I never wanted to be like that."

"Why would you intentionally starve yourself?" He asked.

"My weight was the only thing in my life I could control" she replied sadly "My mom controlled my life. She wouldn't let me go to normal school until I ran away from private school one too many times. And after that she controlled my life. She would chose my clothes, drive me everywhere, control how much money I had so I couldn't try to leave. She never let me date who I wanted to date even then, and never let my "poor" friends come round. She wouldn't let me go out with my friends, if I did, she or my stepdad would follow us. I was not allowed to have an opinion. All my dreams were ridiculed. She said I was a nasty little liar. She said I am an ungrateful, wasteful, little bitch. She put me on a diet when I was five and kept me on it till I was twelve, I thought I was fat so I tried to lose weight and when I did I felt in control for the first time in my life. But I became obsessed. I couldn't see what I was doing to myself. My mom said I was insane. She put me in that clinic and never came to visit. Then sectioned me a year later because she thought I had lost the plot. Because she believed I was a compulsive liar"

"Why?" he frowned.

"When I was thirteen my dad started raping me. He raped me repeatedly over a period of three years. So many times I've lost count. I told you my friend had been raped and never reported because she was scared no one would believe her. I meant me. I was too scared to report it because I was scared no one would believe me." She told him, tears welling in her green eyes. "I told her what he was doing but she ended up having me sectioned"

"She sectioned you after your dad raped you?" he asked, looking somewhat disgusted by this.

"Well she didn't believe me" she admitted, a lump in her throat and tears brimming in her eyes.

"She didn't believe you?" his jaw almost hit the floor. "But she's your mom!"

"I know" tears started to trickle down her cheeks. "She thinks I made all of it up. She doesn't think any of its true"

"Why not?" he asked.

"I don't know" she replied as the tears rolled down her cheeks. "It's not like I'm the only one who has tried to tell her he's a rapist. My brother told her after he stabbed our dad when he caught him raping me. She doesn't believe either of us. When Alex stabbed him and we told mom I thought she would stop making me go to visit but she still made me go"

He didn't seem to know what to say in reply. How the hell could her own mother not believe that she'd been raped by her own father? How could she still make her go and visit after both her and her brother had told her that their dad had raped her?

"It's not just that either" she continued. "When my parents divorced because my mom caught my dad boning his wife Marcella things got sticky. She was happier and she was with my stepdad within a few months. Living with them was good but when I visited my dad things weren't so good. He turned physically abusive when I was about ten. He'd started on my brother before he and my mom even got divorced. He used to hit me, kick me, he even whipped me. He strangled me too. He broke my left arm, right leg and right collarbone and most of my ribs. He used to drag me round by my hair. That's why when I was thirteen I sheared it all off. I took the scissors and I cut it all off. It felt very good. My mom was so angry when she saw me and I just laughed in her face. She called me a crazy little cow"

"Harsh" he said.

"Yeah she can be. I don't know how we're not estranged" she admitted. "We've made up now I guess. Well she hates what I do for a living and likes to pick who I date but other than that we're ok now. After I had some serious psychiatric treatment things started to get better."

"How long were you sectioned for?" he asked.

"About six months" she replied. "They did give me a lot of help and they really knew how to help me ditch all of my stupid habits. It took them a while to get through to me at first because I didn't want to be there. In fact I tried to commit suicide twice in the first three weeks I spent there."

His eyes widened. "You attempted suicide twice?"

"More than that if I'm going to be honest with you" she looked down in shame. "Twice while I was there. Attempted hanging the first time and slitting my wrists the second time. But before I went in I threw myself out of my bedroom window because I didn't want to go on. Didn't do myself much damage really. Only a few broken ribs, a broken leg and a concussion. I was very lucky apparently. I didn't want to be lucky. I had wanted to die at the time"

"You were that depressed?" he forced a lump down his throat.

"Yeah" she nodded "I was abused by my dad and my mother is a control freak who didn't believe me! I got teased at school because I was so skinny. I did not want to go on. When she put me in that place I just hit rock bottom. I didn't understand how she could have me locked up like that. I wasn't violent. I was messed up"

"No… you were broken" he replied softly.

"I was something" she mumbled "Like I said though it did help. I had counselling and group therapy. I had electric shock therapy, which was horrible. I finally stopped self-harming too"

"Self-harming?" his mouth hit the floor.

"Yeah" she exhaled heavily. She pushed her trousers down and showed him her thighs. For the first time he really saw the scars that covered them. She had a lot of them too, it was overwhelming. How had he not noticed them before? They'd only had sex a few times and only once had they had the light on but still. She was covered in scars, some small only a few millimetres wide but some were much larger, stretching most of the way across. "I did these to myself"

"Didn't that hurt?" he blinked as he stared at the scars.

"Of course it hurt" she replied honestly. "That was the point. It hurts and it takes away the emotional pain"

She pulled her trousers back up and did them up. She pulled up her sleeves to reveal her wrists, both of which had tattoos on to cover the fact that she had scars on them. She had an intricate flower tattoo on her right wrist that stretched almost up to her elbow her crease and she had Greek scripture on her left wrist. There were two different scriptures. The first, which was higher up her arm, more or less in the middle of her wrist and elbow read "Θα είναι εντάξει. Είναι εντάξει. Απλά να είναι ισχυρή και να δούμε. Είστε αγαπούσε." The second, just below her hand read: "Είμαι ένας επιζών"

"What does that mean?" he asked gesturing to the Greek scripture on her left wrist.

"This one" she gestured to longer of the two scriptures "Means It will be okay. It is OK. Just be strong and see. You are loved. And this one" she gestured to the shorter of the two scriptures "Means I am a survivor. I got them to cover up my scars from cutting when I left the psychiatric facility. Some of my scars healed and some scarred permanently"

"Why did you self-harm?" he asked.

"I was depressed" she explained "Really depressed. When I was sectioned I was diagnosed with posttraumatic-stress-disorder and severe depression. I was on a load of anti-depressants. Cutting yourself gives you physical pain and it takes your mind away from the emotional pain that you're feeling. If you cut yourself you feel pain and you're bleeding. You can stop the bleeding and put a bandage on it. You can fix it. But you can't put a bandage on your emotions, on your heart can you? You can't fix that pain. It used to eat me up inside. I used to lay awake at night and think about everything that was hurting me. When I really couldn't sleep I would take a knife and cut myself to stop thinking about it. I used whatever I could find to do it; knives scissors, razors, broken plastic, nails and several times garden tools. When I was sectioned I was banned from coming into contact with sharp objects. In therapy we would talk about why I did it and eventually I found new ways to get away from the emotional pain. I haven't harmed myself in thirteen years. I have had several relapses with anorexia though but I haven't had a relapse in six years. But it has had lasting damage on my health"

"What kind of damage?" he asked.

"When I left the psyche facility just after I turned seventeen my dad gave me a boatload of money and I used it to buy this apartment." She replied "I lived alone and with no one to make sure I was eating properly I continued to battle anorexia. I would eat but not enough. My periods stopped and my growth faltered. When I was seventeen and a half I collapsed whilst out with a couple of friends. At the hospital I had to have to so many tests. Eventually they found out that I was suffering from heart failure and needed a transplant straight away. I had to stay in hospital for four months waiting for a new heart. But I decided I would finish turning my life around. I applied for the police academy and made a promise to myself that I would get better. Once I got my new heart I started eating properly and rebuilt my life. My periods came back but it could affect my fertility if I ever want to have children and I have to take medication every day and visit the cardiologist every six months."

There was silence for a moment while he absorbed it all. He looked at her. He wasn't sure quite what he should say. At least she was being honest and open about it.

"I know you're probably overwhelmed" she sighed "And wondering why I've just spilled my life story to you. I wanted to be honest with you. I wanted you to know what you're getting yourself into and so you have the chance to walk away if you want to. I really, really like you and I have feelings for you. I needed to be honest now"

"I don't want to walk away" he smiled slightly. "I like you Adrianna. I really do. At least you can be honest with me now instead of me finding this out five years down the line"

"Exactly why I knew I had to tell you" she smiled too. "If you find out later you'd think I don't trust you and that I'd tricked you. I have suffered with mental health problems in the past and I still go to counselling once a month to help me deal with my issues. I'm still on anti-depressants. I'm not as sound as some people and I'll admit that."

"But you're nowhere near as screwed up as some people" he replied "You were abused and you came out of it. I'm not going to walk away from you. I have feelings for you"

She smiled, her eyes lighting up. Her heart skipped a beat as she took a moment to absorb that. "You don't think I'm mentally screwed up?"

"No" he shook his head. He leaned down and placed his lips on hers. He kissed her passionately. Her brain eventually caught up and she started kissing him back.

Her heart exploded. He didn't want to walk away from her and he didn't think she was crazy like a lot of people, including her own mother, did. She was so happy that she had come clean to him. Maybe this relationship would work. Because he had accepted her in a way no one ever had before and that meant everything to her.

* * *

Hi there, I have made changes to this chapter and chapters 2 and 3. I am rewriting bits of chapter 13 and it should be up soon. Thanks :)


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Meet The Parents.

The weeks passed and their relationship blossomed in a way that was not obvious to anyone but them. They'd both agreed it was easier this way because everyone, including his own friends, were so judgemental it wasn't worth the trouble. So it was a secret. But just because was a secret didn't mean it wasn't there. Far from it. They had it just right for them. They went out together a couple times a week or relaxed at each other's apartment and enjoyed a quiet night in. Sometimes nothing was better than curling up in one another's arms and watching a movie and enjoying a takeaway.

After four months he decided to introduce her to his father and grandmother, who had invited them to dinner. He asked her to make sure she would come. "I'm going to grandmothers for dinner tonight" he said as they took the elevator up to a crime scene on the top of the empire state building.

"Sounds nice" she smiled

"She told me to bring you because… well let's just say she's eager to meet you" he continued "My dad will be there too. He wants to meet you too"

"Oh" she said

"You don't have to come" he added quickly "I just thought…"

"Of course I'll come" she smiled

"Great" he smiled. "I'll pick you up from yours about seven then?"

"Ok" she smiled.

After her shift she headed home and slipped into a nice, white, knee length dress. She put a bit of make up on and sprayed herself with perfume. She slipped her feet into her heels and slipped her arms into her jacket. She pottered about a bit waiting for him to arrive.

She wanted her mom to meet Flack because her opinion of him currently was very low. She didn't like him because he was a working class citizen meaning he was not in _their_ class. Whenever she tried to talk her mom about him and their relationship she would simply say no and change the subject. This frustrated Adrianna beyond belief. All she wanted was for her mom to be supportive of her decisions and accept she could date whoever she chose and not who she was told to date. She wished her mom could see that being rich, having all that money and having everything she wanted didn't make her happy. She was certain her mom would rather she sat around all day long not working, married to a rich man, lots of staff and nannies for their children. She was certain of this because it would fit in with their class. She hated the idea of becoming like that. Stuck at home all day doing nothing would drive her insane. She loved her job and marrying a rich man who could provide for her so she didn't have to work was not what she wanted. Yet her mom could not see this. She was determined she would marry a rich man, become a housewife and just look pretty. She wished she could go up to her mom and tell her where to stick her expectations and plans for her but their relationship was already strained as it was and she didn't want to make it worse.

They drove across town to his grandmother's apartment and parked up. After getting out of the car they headed up his grandmother's floor in the elevator. He knocked on the door. A woman in her seventies opened. She had short hair and a bright, welcoming smile. "Come in" she smiled. He led her inside and she closed the door. "You must be Adrianna"

"Yes" she nodded.

"I've heard lot's about you" she smiled "My grandson doesn't stop talking about you. My name is Katherine"

They went further inside and she offered them drinks. "Where's dad?" Flack asked his grandmother "He's normally early"

"I don't know" she replied "Probably picking Clare up and romancing her in the soppiest way possible. Or she's taking a long time to get ready"

"Oh she's worse than Adrianna and every single woman I have ever dated. We waited an hour and half outside that restaurant for them" said Flack.

"Hey!" Adrianna exclaimed.

"Yes and you left Donald" Katherine rose her eyebrow "Your dad was furious"

"I was bored and I came back didn't I?" he laughed slightly.

"Who is Clare?" Adrianna asked.

"My dads' floozy" Flack explained "She's very friendly and up for a laugh but she can bit a fussy and irritating. She likes to fiddle with my hair and she has this habit of tickling me which I've told her not to do. I'm 29 not nine! Sam thinks she's a bit crazy"

"Clare is crazy" his Katherine rolled her eyes "If I am honest I'm not quite sure what he sees in her. But I am just happy that he is happy."

Adrianna looked down at the floor feeling utterly dejected. Why couldn't her own mother be happy for her? She was in a happy relationship with a man she liked and hadn't been picked for her. Yet her mother wouldn't meet him and got angry whenever she tried to bring up the idea of them meeting. "Are you ok sweetheart?" Katherine asked gently.

"I'm fine" she replied looking up, not wishing to share her problems.

"Are you sure?" Flack asked. She nodded and gave a smile which seemed to reassure him. They were distracted thankfully when the doorbell rang. Katherine went to answer the door and returned with a man in his mid-fifties and a woman of about the same age. "I'm Donald senior" the man smiled holding out his hand "It's great to finally meet you Adrianna."

"And you" she smiled shaking his hand firmly. "You must be Clare"

"Yes" the woman smiled shaking her hand too.

A while later they sat down for dinner where they discussed a great many things. Everybody was laughing and joking, they were all so relaxed. Adrianna realised she felt very comfortable with them all and they in turn all seemed perfectly comfortable with her. "How long have you been together?" Clare asked.

"About four months now" Flack replied.

"I'm guessing you met at work" said Donald senior.

"Yes" Adrianna nodded "We were just friends. But we started going out to pub once a week and it went from there really"

After dinner she, Katherine and Clare went into the living room to talk while Flack and his father washed up. Whilst they were in the kitchen Donald senior told his son something. "I know Adrianna's father"

"What?" Flack frowned. "How?"

"Fourteen years ago I arrested him and led an investigation into him" he explained "He'd raped one of Adrianna's friends and she'd reported it to the police. I built a case against him, it was all ready to go to court and it would've probably resulted in a conviction. But she dropped the charges and he got away scot free. He's a nasty piece of work Donnie. He didn't like me"

"I'll stay away from him" said Flack "Anyway she doesn't talk to him anymore. They're estranged and they never see each other."

"Ah well I'm not surprised. His daughter did appear during the investigation and she seemed very detached from him. I never once saw them talk" Don Senior said.

"She wouldn't have been but that's something else" Flack sighed.

"He abused her didn't he?" Don Senior asked poignantly. Flack nodded in reply.

In the living room Adrianna was talking to Katherine and Clare. They asked her about herself and her family. "What's your family like?" Clare asked.

"Complicated in a lot of ways" Adrianna laughed slightly. "I have one older brother who's called Alex and two younger half-sisters, Elena and Sofia. I have two nephews and a niece. My mom is a bit stuck in her ways. My stepdad is a nice bloke. He's raised me since I was four. And I'm not close to my dad. We just don't get on"

"What made you become a police Officer?" Katherine asked.

"I've never really known but ever since I can remember it's all I ever wanted to do" Adrianna replied. "No one else in my family has ever gone into the police. I just had to be different. I love it though. If I hadn't joined the police I would never have met Don and I'm glad I did"

"You two do seem have a chemistry" Clare smiled.

"The way he looked at you earlier" Katherine added. "I never seen that in his eyes before"

"Don't tell him this but he's the only man that has ever made me feel this way." Adrianna admitted. "I've never been in a relationship like this before"

Clare and Katherine both smiled as Flack and his dad came into the room. Flack smiled seeing that they were getting along.

As the night drew to a close Donald senior told her that it didn't matter to him what she came from as long as his son was happy and as long as they were happy together. She was bowled over by how accepting he was of her and compared that to her mom who had never even met Flack and already seemed to hate even the idea of him. She did find out that Flack's father was unaware the hatred her mother had for his son.

They bid everyone a goodnight and he drove her home. "They're lovely" she smiled "What about your sister"

"We're not exactly close" he admitted "We went different ways. One day maybe"

"Ok" she nodded "I can't believe how accepting your father was. You're so alike. Now I know where you get all your mannerisms from"

"Thanks" he smirked.

"They don't know my family hates you do they?" she asked.

"No" he shook his head "I don't think they need to know. I think it would upset them if I told them."

He dropped her at her apartment block and kissed her goodnight before heading away. She headed up to her apartment and kicked her heels off and flopped onto the sofa. She just kept thinking about that night and why her mother hated even the idea of him so much.

The following day she tried, yet again, to get her mom to agree to meet Flack and this time she was more determined than ever. "Come on mom please. You'll like him." she pleaded down the phone.

" _No" Marla replied._

"You have to give him a chance" said Adrianna.

" _No I don't" Marla replied sternly._

"Please mom." She said desperately.

" _No. He's not right for you" said Marla._

"You've never even met him!" Adrianna exclaimed angrily "You don't know him at all so how the hell can you say he's not right for me?"

" _Because I know working class men, cops especially, they're all after one thing and that's your money" hissed Marla._

"He's not after my money mom!" she screeched.

" _Yes he is" Marla retorted._

"No he isn't!" Adrianna shouted down the phone. "Just meet him once. You don't have to like him. For me mom. Do this for me."

" _Fine" Marla caved angrily "When can you make it round?"_

"Wednesday" replied Adrianna.

" _Come round about seven" Marla said tensely before hanging up._

Adrianna put her phone down and smiled. Result she thought to herself. She was determined to show her mother that he was not grubby working class citizen who lived off the state and was simply with her because he was after her money.

The following day whilst on the way to pick a suspect up she broached the subject. "I was talking to my mom on the phone last night" she began "And she said she wants to meet you"

"I thought your mom hated me?" he asked "Because I'm from a working class family and am a cop"

"She does" Adrianna sighed "It took a lot of persuading to get her to say yes. She's very stubborn and very stuck in her ways. If she'd had it her way she'd never meet you."

So they went after work and she drove to her mom's house on a luxury estate. Driving up the road Flack eyed up all the houses in awe. He wouldn't mind living in place like this but the cost would be more than he'd ever earn, it was miles from work and most were probably rich snobs. She pulled into her mom's driveway and parked her car. He looked out at the enormous house in awe. "Impressed?" she asked.

"It's huge!" he replied. She laughed and climbed out of the car, him following suit shortly after. She locked the car and rang the doorbell. "Who's BMW is that?" he asked.

"My sister Sofia's" she replied "She's seventeen. Mom and Kyron bought it for her for her sixteenth"

"Nice for some" he said as the door opened.

"Well hello" a voice drooled. It was Sofia and she was vigorously eyeing Flack up.

"Hi" said Flack "You must be Sofia"

"And you must be Don" she grinned "Come in" she moved aside and let her sister and Flack inside before closing the door. "MOM! THEY'RE HERE!"

Seconds later Marla appeared in the hall, followed by Kyron. "Mom, dad, this Don. Don this my mom Marla and my stepdad Kyron."

"Nice to meet you" he smiled holding out his hand and shaking Kyron's had while Marla hung back.

"Dinners about ready so you can make yourselves comfortable at the dinner table" said Marla before going back into the kitchen. So they went into the dining room and sat down. Marla soon brought plates of traditional Greek food. Kyron decided to make the effort with Flack as Marla seemed a little reluctant to do so. "So Don you're a police officer. What rank?"

"I'm a homicide detective" he replied

"Why'd you become a cop?" asked Sofia before shoving another forkful of food into her mouth.

"My old man was a cop before he retired" said Flack "It runs in the male side of the family. I'm either a third or fourth generation cop. Being a cop is all I've ever wanted to do."

"Sounds like someone I know" said Sofia glancing in Adrianna's direction.

The evening went smoothly but Marla wouldn't even attempt to make an effort to get to know him. She just sat there and watched him. Kyron and Sofia both spoke to him. In fact Sofia wouldn't shut up. She seemed to have a one million and one questions to ask him. "You have many friends at your precinct?" Sofia asked.

"Yeah I get one well with the guys I usually work with." Flack nodded. "It's always fun deciding who's going to be good cop and who's going to be bad cop."

"Have you and Adrianna ever done good cop bad cop?" she quizzed.

"Oh yeah" he grinned. "Her bad cop was good. I nearly messed myself when she kicked his chair and he ended up falling off!"

Adrianna glanced down the table at her mom who was glaring at him as he chatted to Sofia. She exhaled heavily then returned her gaze to him and Sofia, wondering why Marla just couldn't make the effort.

After dinner Adrianna took Marla into the kitchen. "So what do you think of him?" she asked hopefully.

"My opinion of him hasn't changed" Marla replied. "I still think he's a working class cop from queens with no money who doesn't care. I do not like him. Don't bring him here again"

Adrianna was gutted. Flack had been nothing but polite tonight. He attempted to make conversation with her but she hadn't bothered to reciprocate. She still thought he was a working class lowlife.

Soon they had been together for six months, very discreetly too. Because not a soul in their precinct knew the truth. The truth being they were in a relationship and were sleeping with each other. It was just easier that no one knew yet. Her mom still disapproved of him, her stepdad thought he as ok and Sofia seemed to like him. They weren't fazed by her mom's disapproval and carried on seeing each other. But someone else had found and was determined to push them apart.

Flack was at home one night, laying on his sofa watching the latest game when his phone started to ring. He reached out and picked it up. The caller id registered as an unknown caller. So curious, he answered the call. "Hello, Don Flack…"

" _I know who you are" the voice replied, it was male and one he didn't recognise._

"Who is this?" Flack asked sitting up.

" _I have already sent you my address. Come round now and we can talk" said the man_

"Who are you?" Flack demanded.

" _Just come to my house now and we can talk about it" the voice replied "Or I will hurt the girl you call girlfriend"_

"Lay a finger on her and you'll be looking down the barrel of my gun" Flack threatened. No one threatened Adrianna to get one over on him.

" _Yes I know I will" the man laughed coldly "So come to my house and we'll talk and she doesn't have to get hurt"_

"Who is this?" he demanded angrily "How did you get this number?"

" _All will be revealed. Just come to the address I have emailed you and we will talk. Or your girlfriend is no more. Am I making myself clear?" the man spat._

"When do you want me to come?" asked Flack.

" _Now" then the line went dead._

Flack stared at his phone before getting to his feet and shoving it in his pocket. He switched his laptop on and opened his emails up. Finding one labelled simply as address from an unnamed account he clicked open and the email opened up. He noted down the address on a piece of paper and shut his laptop down again. He put his shoes on and grabbed his car keys before leaving his apartment and headed down to his car. He thought about calling Adrianna to warn her but he didn't want to worry her and he was determined he was going to sort this out now so she didn't have to get hurt.

He drove to the address, which turned out to be a massive house in an expensive estate just outside of the city. He parked up and got out of his car locking it as he walked up the driveway to the house. Reaching the house he knocked on the large double doors. The door soon opened and a woman stood on the other side. She was skinny with long fingers, a tiny waist and massive hair. She was caked in makeup and her nails were ridiculously long. They could probably kill someone. "Hello" she said sourly, putting on a very large fake smile. "Come in" she grabbed his shirt and yanked him inside.

"Hey!" he said pushing her hand away from his shirt.

"Follow me" smiled sourly "He's this way" she wagged her slim finger at him. Confused he followed her through the house and up the stairs. They came to a stop outside a door and she knocked on it before going inside. "Wait here" she said before slipping through the door. She came out a few seconds later. "You can go in"

"Ok" he replied before she practically shoved him inside. The door slammed shut behind him and he looked around. The room was huge, several large picture frames lined the walls, each frame containing a picture of a different next-to-naked showgirl. There was a desk in the middle of the room and the chair was turned towards the large window. "I don't know who you are" said Flack "Or what you want with me or my girlfriend but I only came to stop you from hurting her"

"You haven't met me before" replied a voice, a cold and somewhat callous voice.

"Then why did you threaten me?" asked Flack cutting over him.

"Time. It will become clearer with some time" he replied "Now where was I? Ah yes… you haven't met me before but you have how should I put this, seen me before"

"Who are you?" Flack demanded, feeling annoyed this man who'd just made it clear they'd never met wouldn't tell him who he was and what he wanted with him.

"You really don't know do you?" the voice asked.

"No I don't" Flack shook his head "So if you wouldn't mind sharing"

"Are you carrying?" the voice asked.

"What?" Flack frowned.

"Are you carrying your gun?" the voice asked.

"How do you know I carry a gun?" asked Flack.

"You told me on the phone" the voice seemed to sound happy, but a cold, dark kind of happy. "Remember?"

"Oh" said Flack.

"And anyway. All police officers carry firearms" replied the voice as the chair started to twist around.

"How do you know I'm a cop?" Flack asked, suddenly feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

"My daughters a cop" said the voice. "She works at twelfth. You work at twelfth"

"Who are you?" Flack demanded, starting to feel worried. "How do you know where I work? Have you been following me?"

"Maybe" the voice replied "Maybe not… is this your address" a hand pushed a piece of paper towards him with an address on it. Flack picked it up and looked at it. That was his address. Now he felt even more worried and uncomfortable.

"Where the hell did you get this?" he demanded angrily as the chair was almost the right way around. The man's face started to come into view and Flack studied him to see if he could recognise him. "And where did you get my phone number and personal email address? Have you been hacking my life?"

"We should get down to business" said the man now fully facing him. Flack still didn't recognise him… but then it started to come to him.

"Who are you?" Flack demanded.

"You don't know?" he smirked "Come on. Take a good look". Flack studied his face then image flashed into his brain, along with a name that sent shivers down his spine.

"You threatened your own daughter to get me to come here? You sick bastard!" Flack spat

"So you do remember" he smiled coldly "Yes Adrianna is my daughter. She's my little princess. And I want the best for her. You're a cop and the last cop she dated only wanted her money. You must be after the same thing. So to stop her from getting hurt I would prefer if you broke up with my daughter so she can find someone of her own class and wants her for her. "

"Get lost" Flack shook his head "I want her for her. I don't want her money. I want her because she's amazing"

"I'm an intelligent man so I know that is a load of horseshit" said Eddie.

"If you were intelligent you would know I'm telling the truth" replied Flack "I told you I only came here to stop you from laying a finger on her."

"I know where you live, how to get hold of you anywhere, anytime. Break-up with my daughter or I will personally ensure your life is a living hell" Eddie sad coolly.

"No I won't break-up with her" Flack shook his head.

"Yes you will" Eddie smirked coldly.

"No I won't" Flack replied insistently "I love her"

"You don't love my daughter" Eddie shook his head "You love her money"

"I don't care about her money. It means nothing to me" Flack said insistently "You don't know me, you don't know a thing about me. Because if you did you'd know I'm not after your money. I'm not stupid. I know what this is about. You want to protect your money from money grabbing-go-getters. I'm not after you money. I don't want it all I want is to be with your daughter"

"You see I know things" said Eddie "About where my daughter works. I know everybody hates her and thinks she is a spoilt little rich girl. I know your friend Danny Messer-"

"How the hell do you know that?" Flack demanded. How did this man, Adrianna's father whom he'd never come into contact with before and whom he knew from her to be a perverted bastard, know his friends name?

"I told you I'm intelligent man, I know things" he replied cryptically "Now I know your friend Danny Messer has a particular dislike of my daughter. Your other friends are almost the same, Lindsay Monroe, Sheldon Hawkes and Adam Ross. Mac Taylor and Stella Bonasera are a bit less judgemental towards her"

"How do you know the names all of my friends?" he demanded "In fact how do you know who I am and that your daughter is my girlfriend?"

"I told you I know things" said Eddie. "I have people. Now break up with my little princess or I will make your life a living hell"

"I know what you are" said Flack "You're a slime ball. I usually arrest sick people like you"

"Ok" he said simply "Get out of my house… and watch your life become hell overnight." Flack glared at him before leaving. He drove home and turned in for the night. But overnight Eddie turned his world upside down.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: We Break Up Then We Make Up

The following morning he headed to work. Heading out to a case it felt like someone was following him. He kept seeing a big range rover SUV. He checked out the plates but they were registered to a car that had recently been scrapped and the registered owner for the plates was an 86 year old man. He knew who it was. It was Adrianna's father, he had people following him. He received hundreds upon hundreds of threatening phone calls, texts and emails, some threatening harm upon him, some upon Adrianna and some against his family.

It was hell. He couldn't go five minutes without getting an email or a text or a phone a call. Everyone was getting very pissed off with him. There were even more of them whilst he was with Adrianna. Then after two days he was sent an email of him in the shower, then the following day one of Adrianna in the bath then one of his sister on a night out then in the shower. They were following everyone he knew and loved. They'd cancel dates he was supposed to go on with Adrianna or send texts to his friends pretending to be him and they ended up arguing and falling out.

And after a week he returned to Eddie's house. He rapped on the door until Eddie answered the door. "Stop this!" he pleaded "You're ruining my life!"

Eddie shoved him and he tumbled down the steps landing on his right wrist. "Break-up with her and it's over"

"Fine" he caved.

The following day he went round to her place and she let him in. "What happened?" she asked gesturing to his wrist.

"Had a fight with a suspect" he shrugged "Listen about this… You're great and everything just I'm not ready for anything really serious"

"Oh" she looked down, tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry" he said.

"So it's completely over?" she asked. He nodded and she burst into tears and ran into her bedroom, slamming her door behind her. She threw herself on her bed and cried.

He dropped his head in shame. What had he done? He already regretted ending their relationship because she was everything to him. And he'd just broken her heart. He knew he had. He saw himself out and as he walked away it hit him. He really did love her. They'd had six wonderful months and he'd just thrown that away. But even then he didn't realise just how big a mistake he had made.

She didn't move from her bed for the rest of the night. She just lay there hugging her pillow as the tears streamed down her face. She loved him and he had just broken her heart in two. He was the first person who had ever made her feel this way. Like she was safe and loved. Obviously her older brother Alex had always tried to protect her, keep her safe and loved her but that was familial love. This was a different kind of love. The love you feel when you're in a strong, loving relationship. Where it means everything to you. He meant everything to her. She loved him more than anything.

Then something else happened.

They bumped into each other and work the next day and it was so awkward. They didn't know what to say to each other and were put on separate cases so they didn't have to talk to each other. But Adrianna was all over the place, she was heartbroken over him ending their relationship. She couldn't think straight and Cass who she was working with kept making very obvious dig at her. "Hey focus you brat"

"I am" she replied.

"What's wrong with you?" Cass hissed.

"My boyfriend broke-up with me last night" admitted Adrianna.

"Can't see why" Cass smirked.

"Oh behave Cass" said Bryant "Stop giving her such a hard time"

Meanwhile Flack was working on a case with Danny and Mac. "Hey man you alright?" asked Danny.

"Yeah I'm dandy" he replied

"Ok" shrugged Danny.

During his lunch break he went to talk to his father but Clare was buzzing around. "Clare give us five minutes!" he snapped slightly. She disappeared into the bedroom and left them to talk. "I threw the best thing in my life away" replied Flack "I feel like such an idiot"

"You may have to elaborate" said Donald senior.

"I broke up with Adrianna" Flack began "And now I feel like such a twat and I know I've completely broken her heart"

"She is a lovely girl. What did you do that for?!" asked Donald senior.

"Her dad did this to me" he gestured to his wrist "He doesn't like me or the idea of us being together because I'm not like them. He lured me to his place by threatening to hurt her so I went to stop him from laying a hand on her. I didn't realise who he was at first and when I did I called him a sick bastard. He told me to break up with her and I told him I wouldn't break up with her. So he had people follow me, send me threatening texts and emails. I received hundreds of threatening calls. So I went back to see him and he shoved me down the stairs and told me if I wanted it to end all I had to do was leave her."

"So you left her" said Donald senior.

"She did not take it well" replied Flack "I didn't know what else to do. They guy is a monster. She told me that. He'd just pay everyone off if I tried to take him to court. I broke up with her because I know what he is capable of doing to people. Of doing her. He's a rapist but it's a lot worse than you think it is"

"He raped her best friend when she was sixteen" Donald senior responded.

"It's not just that" he shook his head. "He raped her too. He raped her over and over again when she was a teenager and he physically abused her. He broke one of her arms, one of her legs and one of her collarbones. He's thug and I knew he'd hurt her. But it was the biggest mistake I've ever made because she was the best thing in my life and I love her"

Donald senior frowned angrily. "What kind of threats?"

"He's threatening to hurt me, to hurt Adrianna, to hurt you and Sam" he explained. "Threatening to kill you execution style. Sending me explicit pictures of Adrianna and Sam in the shower. He's got people watching me and them and probably you. He had people following me. All because he wanted me to break up with her"

Flack fell silent and rested his hands in his head. "I don't know what to do"

"Talk to her. Explain what happened" said Senior "It might take her while to come round and think about forgiving you. But chances are if she took it badly you probably mean a lot to her too. And I'll go have a word with her father"

"No don't get involved" said Flack "He already knows you and he'll probably have you killed. And he doesn't know I'm your son. Just leave it"

Meanwhile Adrianna was on an arrest with Cass and Bryant when the suspect attacked her whilst Cass and Bryant basically stood and watched. He grabbed her jacket and held it tightly shaking her body. Then he wrapped his hands around her neck and tried to strangle her. She fought back and managed to knee him in the stomach. He let go of her and doubled over briefly. She got her cuffs out and went to arrest him but he grabbed her wrists. "Get off!" she cried has he wrestled her to the floor. He pushed her onto her back and started kicking her in the face and stomach as she lay on the floor trying to fight him off. He ended up kicking her repeatedly in the stomach and face until Cass and Bryant finally pulled him away, which they could've done ages ago. She was covered in blood and she was agony. Bryant called an ambulance which soon arrived. They helped her onto the bed and she was taken to hospital to get checked out. There she was sent for x-rays and given some pain relief. "Ok" said the doctor coming into the cubicle. "I've had a quick look at your x-rays and you have three broken ribs but that's it. No internal bleeds and you have a minor concussion. You do have a lot of external bruising but that will heal. Your ribs and concussion will heal on their own too but I've prescribed you some painkillers which you can collect from any pharmacy"

"Thanks" said Adrianna "Am I free to go?"

"Once you've signed the discharge forms you're free to leave" he nodded. So she signed the forms and left the hospital. She went back to the precinct to collect her car before going to her mom's house. She parked up and got of the car before heading up to the front door. She rang the bell until her mom opened the door. "Hey… what happened this time?" asked Marla.

"He got angry" replied Adrianna "He was a big guy was very strong. He could easily make mincemeat of dad"

"Did this happen today?" asked Marla.

"Yeah a couple of hours ago. I went to hospital and they prescribed me some painkillers for the pain" sighed Adrianna as they went into the kitchen. "Just a couple of broken ribs and a minor concussion. Nothing serious."

"At least you've got someone to kiss it all better for you" said Marla.

"No I don't" she looked down "He broke up with me yesterday. I don't really understand why. Everything was going right. We'd even talked about moving in together then he just ended it. I was heartbroken. I thought he loved me"

"I'm sorry sweetheart" sighed Marla "Maybe it wasn't meant to be"

"If that's true then why don't I believe it" she sighed.

"Break-ups are hard είδος (kind)" said Marla "He wasn't right for you"

"You don't like him anyway" replied Adrianna "You told me to leave him countless times"

"Because I knew he wasn't right for you" said Marla.

"And because he's not rich enough or the right class for you" Adrianna narrowed her eyes. "He was too proud of his roots for you. Would you have liked him if he wasn't proud of where he comes from? If he had money?"

"I don't know" replied Marla "I just think people should stick to their own class groups and be done with it. He didn't deserve you. You're too good for him. Now you can meet someone who truly deserves you."

"Yeah" she sighed. "I just don't understand why he dumped me. Everything was going great mom. I thought he was the one. I really did"

"He wasn't the one" Marla shook her head "You know deep down he isn't the one. You work together. You'll see him every day of your life, knowing how much he hurt you. You'll probably see him slobbering all over other women. Are you going to put in for a transfer?"

"No" Adrianna shook her head "You know Pauli's house, it has a spare bedroom". Pauli was her cousin; he lived in Greece with his mom and dad.

"Yes it has that massive spare you room" replied Marla "Why?"

"I want to go to Greece for a while" said Adrianna "They're always saying we're welcome anytime. Maybe I can stay until I find my own place and set up home over there"

"When did you think this up?" asked Marla.

"It's been on the cards for years" admitted Adrianna "But then I met Don and I fell in love. I didn't need to run away and start again. But now I do"

So she rang Pauli and they talked for ages. He said it was fine for her to come and stay until she could find somewhere of her own over there. She was so happy. She booked her flights for two days' time. She loved Greece, it was a place where she felt truly safe. She liked New York but nowhere near as much as she loved being in Greece. She decided to stay with her mom for a couple of days to spend time with her before she went to Greece.

Meanwhile Flack's boss had just signed him off for three weeks because he had broken his wrist and was covering his ass. Word reached Flack that she'd been attacked when Cass and Bryant returned without her. By now five hours had passed and they'd interviewed, processed and charged their suspect. "Where's Adrianna?" he asked.

"She was attacked" replied Cass "The guy went loopy and attacked her. He beat the living shite out of her sorry ass"

"Is she alright?" asked Flack

"They took her to trinity to get checked out." smirked Cass. "She was very bloody"

"That's hilarious" he rolled his eyes "Really. I'm laughing on the inside." Then he left and went to trinity general hospital. But when he got there he was told she'd already discharged herself and wasn't at her place. He couldn't get a hold of her on her cell either but she probably just didn't want to talk to him. Finally after two days he went to her place again and she was there. She let him in. "What do you want?" she asked folding her arms.

"To see if you're ok" he replied.

"Why? You broke up with me remember?" she narrowed her eyes. She was still incredibly cut up about it.

"Because I care" he said looking around and noticing bags and suitcases all over the place.

"Do you really?" she sneered disbelievingly.

"Yes I really care about you Adrianna… are you going somewhere?" he asked.

"Greece" she replied "For a while, maybe a couple of years"

"A couple of years?" he asked "Why?"

"You ended us and everyone hates me. Cass and Bryant just stood there while he attacked me and beat the living daylights out of me before they eventually decided to pull him off and arrest him. I was in agony. I have three broken ribs, concussion and I am covered in bruises. I have nothing left here. I want to make a fresh start" she explained "There's nothing for me here"

"Yes there is" he said.

"No there isn't" she shook her head. "I feel alone"

"I shouldn't have broken up with you. It was stupid" he sighed

"Why did you do it then?" She demanded. "I think you owe me a proper explanation"

"Your dad threatened me. He rang me up and told me to come round. He emailed me his address and said if I didn't come he would hurt you so I went. At first I didn't realise who he was then when I did I called him a sick bastard. He told me to break up with you or he would make my life hell but I wouldn't do it. Then I left and he had some of his guys stalk me because I refused to leave you when he first threatened me. He sent me threatening texts and emails, pictures of you and my sister naked. He threatened both your lives, threatened to rape you, both of you and you told me he'd done it before. I couldn't take the chance he'd do it again. I went back to see him and asked him to stop but he shoved me down the steps and said it would only end if broke up with you. I caved." He explained

"That bastard can't bear to see me happy" she hissed "I swear I'm going to kill him"

"Don't go to Greece. I'm sorry" he said

"Why shouldn't I go?" she asked anger suddenly sparking into her body. "What do I honestly have here that is worth staying for? My rapist father, my overbearing and judgemental mother and my spoilt little sisters? I'm not close to my sisters. And you were the best thing in my life until my rapist father forced us apart and you dumped me."

"I shouldn't have" he shook his head.

"But you did" she snapped "You hurt me!"

"I'm sorry Adrianna" he pleaded slightly.

"Are you?" she hissed.

"Yes" he nodded.

"Just go away and leave me alone." She retorted. He didn't say another word before leaving. She collapsed down on her bed and burst into tears. She loved him more than anybody else. More than she had ever loved anybody. He had a broken her heart and for as much as she wanted to hate him she couldn't. But she still wasn't sure if giving him a second chance was the best idea. Her heart was torn over what to do.

In a tearful haze she cancelled her flight and told her cousin she wouldn't be coming for another week, deciding she would give life here just one more week.

The following day she returned to work. She needed to know if there was anything worth staying for.

Flack received a phone call, from Eddie of all people, who demanded they meet up in a public place so there was less chance of him giving him one. They decided to meet up in café not far from where Flack lived. He arrived first and sat at a table. Soon after Eddie arrived, wearing a sickeningly cold grin on his face. Eddie sat down opposite him and asked him what he'd like to drink before ordering. Then once their drinks arrived they got down to business. "Did you break up with my precious princess?" Eddie asked.

"Yes I did" he replied angrily "And it was a mistake. I shouldn't have let you get the better of me"

"You did the right thing" Eddie smirked.

"No I didn't" Flack snapped. "I love your daughter for who she is and when I told her it was over I broke her heart. She didn't deserve that. Don't you think you put her through enough when she was a child?"

"I don't know what you're talking about" Eddie shrugged smugly.

"Yes you do" Flack hissed. "You sexually and physically abused her for years"

"My daughter has a very casual relationship with the truth" Eddie replied "She loves telling stories, sick stories that she has cooked up in her head. She has never liked me so she has told people that I raped her to spite me, to get back at me for not being the best of fathers"

"I don't think she did lie to me" flack shook his head angrily. "If she made it up, tell me why she spent years of her life starving herself to the point that she went into heart failure and almost died. Tell me why she spent years of her life cutting herself to shreds. Come on."

"My daughter has been mentally unstable her whole life Donald" Eddie grinned. "She lives in a fantasy land half the time. She has painted me to be an evil old man. Literally too. When she was in a place where she belonged… the psychiatric facility I mean… she painted me as man creepy old man with hands wandering over a little girl's body and with devil horns. She painted her mother as a cow. Something went wrong in her mind before she was born. Her synapses don't fire properly. I never inappropriately touched her. I simply gave her hugs and kisses."

"You think she belongs in a psychiatric facility?" Flack spat.

"Well there she couldn't hurt anyone could she?" Eddie shrugged.

"She never hurt anyone else Eddie" he seethed. "The only person she ever hurt was herself. She is covered in scars from where she mutilated herself. She never hurt people. She isn't like that. She isn't violent"

"When she was growing up she used to attack me and mother, and her stepparents. She bit us, kicked us and punched us. But we never hurt her" Eddie said, still smirking coldly.

"I don't believe you and do you know why?" Flack fumed. "Because I know her. I watched her from afar at first and at first I thought she was a bit of a brat. But from the moment we started getting to know each other, from the first time we ever went out together as friends, I knew it was all an act. One big charade."

"My daughter is an ungrateful, spiteful little brat" Eddie snapped.

"No, she isn't a brat you stupid man, she's broken. It doesn't take a psychiatrist to work that one out" Flack snapped back. "And you and your ex-wife are the reason why! You broke your own daughter. You and your wife all but tortured her throughout her childhood. You even tried to buy her off by giving her the money for the apartment. You know she didn't make any of those accusations up."

"She'll never tell anyone" Eddie smirked. "She's too afraid of me paying everyone off to ever tell the cops and have me punished."

"She told me" Flack seethed, feeling sick to his stomach. "Because unlike you she's a decent human being, with a heart."

"So what there's nothing you can do" Eddie laughed "I'll never get into trouble. I have always gotten away with what I did and I always will."

An unbearable rage surged through his body which caused to rise from his seat, move round the table and send his fist flying into Eddie's grinning face. "YOU SICK BASTARD!"

Eddie retaliated by kicking him in the groin so Flack punched him several more times before some cops arrived from 12th and carted them both to the precinct. Adrianna saw them both being led to cells and immediately went to see what was going on. She caught one of the arresting officers and asked him. "Why have they been brought in?" she asked.

"They were arguing in a café and it escalated to physical violence" the Officer explained "So we've arrested them both."

After a while officers found out what had caused the argument and the subsequent physical fight. Eddie initially wanted to press charges but after realising what he'd admitted to Flack he changed his mind. So no charges were brought against either of them and they were both released.

Adrianna told Flack to come round that night. So he did. When he got there she let him in and made them both a coffee. Then she got down to business. "Why were you with my dad?" she asked.

"Because he called me and asked me to meet him" Flack explained. "He wanted to know if I'd broken up with you"

"Oh right" she frowned. "What were you arguing about?"

"You" he replied.

"Me?" she looked puzzled.

"He said you were mentally unstable and that you belonged in a psyche facility" he told her "He said you liked to make up sick stories about him because you don't like him. He said that he never hurt you and that he only ever gave you kisses and cuddles. He said there was something wrong with your synapses that made you misinterpret the situations. He said he never raped you. I said I didn't believe that you'd made any of it up. Then he said you were violent as child that you used to hit, kick and bite him. I said I didn't believe that either because you're not like that. You don't hurt people Adrianna. You're one of the nicest people I've ever met. Some things were said. He said you were an ungrateful, spiteful little brat. I said you're not. That you're broken. Some more things were said. Then…"

"Then what?" she asked.

"Well he more or less admitted to me that he abused you" he replied uneasily. "I said you know that she never made any of those accusations up and he said she'll never tell anyone. She's too afraid of me paying everyone off to ever go to the cops and have me punished. I said that you'd told me and he said there was nothing I could no. He said and I quote "I'll never get into trouble. I have always gotten away with what I did and I always will. So I decked him"

"You did start it?" she raised her eyebrow.

"Yes because he asked for it!" he exclaimed. "He bloody well deserved it."

"Why would you deliberately provoke him? You must've known he'd retaliate!" she retorted.

"Yeah well I didn't care. I'd gotten him to admit how much of an arsehole he really is." Flack shrugged. "I still got in a good few punches. I gave him what he deserved for all the years that he made your life hell"

"But those are my battles" she frowned. "Why get involved like that? Why get him to admit it. Why punch his lights out, even though he deserves it? You could've thrown your career away if he'd pressed charges and for what? Punching a man you hardly know?"

"I told him that breaking up with you was a mistake because I knew I'd broken your heart." He explained. "I said you didn't deserve that. He just thought it was funny. I was angry. He made your childhood a misery and he was intent on making your adult life a misery as well. So I provoked I made him admit what he'd done. I was angry that I'd let him get the better of me as well. I broke up with up because I couldn't stand the thought of him hurting you again. And I hated myself for hurting you because well…"

"Because well what…" she asked.

"I love you" he said softly

"What?" Adrianna frowned.

"I love you" he repeated "I love you Adrianna. I'm head over heels completely and utterly in love with you. I don't care if people call me crazy for being your friend or for being with you. Tell me I need my head tested because I have feelings for you. You're perfect for me. And breaking up with you, letting you go was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I'm sorry because you're the best thing in my life. I want you, and I want to be with you, I love you."

She didn't know what to say. She was lost for words. She had not been expecting him to turn up today and profess that he was in love with her. They stood in silence for a while before she finally spoke. "I love you too" she said finally. She moved towards and acted on her impulses and kissed him as passionately as she could. He soon started kissing her back until they finally pulled apart.

"Please forgive me" he said "I never meant to hurt you and I regret breaking up with you more than anything. Please give me another chance"

Yes he'd hurt her but her heart was telling her to forgive him. "I will" she replied softly before moving back into his lips.

And before they knew they were having sex in her bed. Afterwards they lay curled up in each other's arms. "I have a flight to catch in six hours" she said.

"You're still going?" he asked.

"Just for a couple of weeks. I've been signed off for a fortnight. Brucknell is covering his ass" she replied "I'm going to have me a holiday. Shame you're working…"

"Actually he signed me off for three weeks" admitted Flack.

"Why?" she frowned then she looked down "Oh that… how about it then?"

"Sounds good to me" he smiled before kissing her.

They jumped out of her bed and booked him a ticket on her flight before heading to his place so he could get some things. Then they headed to the airport. They checked in and soon they boarded the plane.

They spent two weeks in Greece, relaxing in the sunshine and rekindling their romance. They talked about their relationship and talked about moving in together again. And they decided they were serious enough to take it to that stage. They took strolls along the beach as the sun was setting and even braved it and went skinny dipping. "No way!" he shook his head.

"Come on!" she grinned "It's fun. It's refreshing"

"So is an ice cold shower!" laughed Flack.

"Oh come on you're not afraid are you?" she teased.

"No" he replied. "But I can't get my cast wet!"

"I brought this with me!" she giggled pulling a plastic bag out of her bag before throwing him at him. "I'll go in first. Show you there's nothing to be afraid of" she took her dress off then her bra before slipping her knickers off and bolting into the water. "Come on! It's not cold you chicken!"

"Fine" he laughed before stripping off and running into the water to join her. "You said it wasn't cold you lair"

"Guilty as charged" she smirked moving towards him. She reached him and they wrapped their arms around each other. They leaned in and started kissing each other passionately then she let him into her body and they had sex in the sea.

"Well I've never done that before" she grinned zipping her dress back up.

"What skinny dipping or having sex in the sea?" he asked.

"Both" she giggled "It was incredible"

After two luxurious weeks they flew back to New York together. And a month later Flack moved in with her. She took the day off work to help him move in. They spent the morning packing boxes into the removal van and their cars then spent the afternoon unpacking his things. They put up a second wardrobe for his clothes together and then filled it with his things. That evening they ordered a takeaway and ate at the kitchen table. Then they curled up on the sofa to watch TV.

After a while they moved into the bedroom and undressed before falling into bed together. They started kissing and were soon rolling around kissing passionately. Then they made sweet love to each other before dropping off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Elena's Wedding

Flack still received the threatening texts, emails and phone calls from her father and the people who he'd hired to harass him. And after a month Adrianna had had enough so she got in her car and drove to her father's house. She locked her car and stormed up to the front door which she rapped on furiously. Her stepmother opened the door and let her in. "Where is he?" she demanded.

"In his study. He's in a meeting" replied her stepmom, Marcella.

"I don't care" she retorted before storming upstairs and bursting into her father's study. "We need to talk"

"Adrianna" he said "I'm in a meeting"

"It can wait" she replied. "This is important."

"Give us ten minutes" he said to his associates who then left the office closing the door behind him. "What are you playing at?"

"Stop stalking Don!" she seethed "Call your guys off and leave him alone!"

"No he doesn't want you. He wants your money" said Eddie.

"No he doesn't!" Adrianna retorted "He wants me. He loves me!"

"No he doesn't" Eddie shook his head.

"Yes he does!" Adrianna shouted "Leave him alone or I'll I report you for raping me when I was sixteen and make sure you rot in prison where you belong. Now call your guys off or I do it"

"You wouldn't dare" he narrowed his eyes.

"Wouldn't I?" she rose her eyebrow "Call them off or I swear down I will do it"

"Fine" he replied. "Consider it done"

"Thank you. I hope I never have to come back and see you again" she hissed before leaving.

And overnight Flack's life changed again. Eddie and his guys stopped stalking him and left him alone so he could get on with his life again. "How did you get him to stop?" asked Flack.

"I told if he didn't I'd report him for raping me all those years ago" she explained "I made it clear to him that I would do it if he didn't leave you alone"

"Thanks" he smiled

"No problem" she shrugged.

Things were going smoothly once more. Then one morning while they were having breakfast Adrianna was going through the post. She saw one that was very decorative. She prised it open and saw that it was an invitation to Elena's wedding. At the bottom she saw a note that infuriated her. " _Do not under any circumstances bring your boyfriend to the wedding Adrianna"._ How dare she? It was her wedding but how could she deny Adrianna her right to have a date. To have the man she loved attend with her. She'd been allowed to take Ben to her Uncle's wedding. She knew Sofia was bringing her latest loser boyfriend because she'd told her, so why couldn't she have hers? "What a bitch" Adrianna hissed throwing the invitation on the kitchen counter.

"Who's a bitch?" Flack frowned looking up from his breakfast.

"My sister Elena" she replied "She's getting married and she's invited me but she's specifically written on my invitation that I'm not allowed to bring you"

"They all hate me" said Flack "Why would she want me to come?"

"That is not the point Don" she sighed indignantly "Every time they do this. They never invite you. Dinners they never let you come. They let Sofia bring her latest boyfriend but won't let me bring you. It isn't fair."

"It is her wedding" Flack reasoned "I'm not bothered. Honestly I'm not. If she doesn't want me there I won't come"

"But I am bothered by it" she admitted "They just think I'll be ok with it and go on my own. Then everybody will think I'm single and pathetic like they did at my cousin's wedding. Least at my Uncle's wedding when I was allowed to bring Ben. And all the greasy arseholes will start touching me up and coming onto me like they did at my cousin's wedding"

"Hey you're beautiful of course they were going to come onto you" he smiled.

"Not helping" she rolled her eyes "I've had enough of being told what to do and who I can be with and who I can bring to things."

"I honestly don't mind" he insisted.

"I do" she stated "I've got to go round there anyway I'll talk to Elena. I know it's her wedding, her big day but I don't want to go on my own. I'd invite Marco to my wedding even if I do think he's a bit of a slime ball so she should do the same"

"You and your sister are just different" Flack replied "She's wants her wedding to be a high class affair and I'm not that. It's fine"

"I know what she wants but it isn't fair" she looked down. "It hurts"

He looked at her and sighed. It really did bother her. But why shouldn't it, they treated her and her feelings like crap. Yet she still saw them and wanted to be involved with them. Something about it was so poignant.

But she didn't listen to him. She went to her moms' where Elena was talking to them about the wedding. Once they'd got all the important things out of the way and the others had left she spoke to Elena and Marla about the invitation. "How dare you send me this?" she scolded.

"It's an invitation to my wedding" replied Elena "I want you there"

"I want to be there but I'm not coming on my own" Adrianna retorted "How dare you tell me not to bring my boyfriend!"

"He dumped you, trampled all over your heart then comes round and spins you a story about loving you and you run straight back into his arms" Elena shook her head "He's an asshole"

"He had his reasons and you can keep out of my personal life" Adrianna snapped "It's not fair!"

"It's perfectly fair" said Elena "It's my wedding and I don't want him there"

"It's not fair on me!" Adrianna seethed "I've had enough of being told I can't bring him to anything. You always have Marco, Sofia always has her latest dickhead boyfriend yet I can't bring my boyfriend!"

"Don't come then" Elena sneered.

"I want to come" said Adrianna. "But not alone and you can't stop me from bringing him"

"It's my wedding and I don't want him there so stop kicking up a fuss and shut up" Elena hissed. Adrianna stared at her, tears in her eyes. Angry and hurt she stormed from the house slamming the door shut behind her.

Several weeks later it was the day of Elena's wedding. Adrianna got ready, into a red knee length dress and black heels. She straightened her long dark hair and put it into a half up half down do. She made certain Flack put on his best suit and a bowtie. "I don't even know how to tie a bowtie!" he exclaimed "Can't I just wear my best tie?"

"No you can't!" she shook her "I'll tie it for you". She took the bowtie and tied it around his neck. "There see you look like a film star"

"More like a Russian mafia boss" he replied "I look like I'm about to go and settle a massive drug deal with some high end Columbian drug dealer"

"Very funny" she laughed "You look smart and if you were a Russian mafia boss you'd be heavily armed. Probably a couple of handguns and a machine gun"

"Don't forget the knife for slicing people open and ripping their guts out" he laughed too "And I'd have a moustache or a beard. Or both. Just for effect"

She grabbed her purse. "What have you got in there?" he asked eyeing up the bag "The kitchen sink?"

"Lipstick, mascara, gun you know the basics" she shrugged.

"A gun?!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah well Elena wants me to act like her personal bodyguard" she replied "She said I can be extra special security because I can really arrest people. I thought she was going to put me on the door and have me strip search everybody"

"That would be good fun" he smirked "I strip searched someone when I was a patrolman. I got punched in the face."

"I strip searched someone" said Adrianna "He couldn't stop laughing. He was very ticklish and every time I touched him he would laugh. Never again. Right we should get going".

He drove them to the venue a large church near where Adrianna's mom and stepdad lived. "I didn't think there were going to be this many people" said Adrianna looking around in awe. "I know she has lot of friends and we have a big family but this is ridiculous"

"Biggest wedding I've ever been to" he replied. "They're going to have loads of wedding presents"

"Yeah. That's why I didn't get them anything expensive or stupid" Adrianna smirked "I mean what do you, get the couple who has everything anyway?"

"A toaster" he laughed.

"It's time to go in" a man announced loudly. Everyone made their way inside and Adrianna took her seat next to Alex, whose sons were to be pageboys. "So Elena changed her mind then?" asked Alex.

"No she didn't" replied Adrianna "But I wasn't coming on my own"

"Good for you" Alex smiled.

Then Adrianna's mom Marla came into the church and over to them and she saw Flack sitting next to Adrianna. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded.

"He's my boyfriend and I wasn't coming alone" Adrianna explained firmly. "You can't stop me bringing him every single time."

"Go" Marla told him furiously "Get out of here. How dare you show your filthy face at my daughters' wedding when you were specifically not invited?"

"My face isn't filthy" Flack retorted.

"Get out now!" Marla snapped. She clicked her fingers and two men came over. "Escort this man out and make sure he doesn't get back in"

"Don't you dare!" Adrianna spat. The men stood him up and took his arms. "Let go of him!" Adrianna insisted but they didn't. They led him outside and shoved him out. "Do not come back" one of the men snapped.

He stood up and looked at the church before storming back to his car. He climbed inside and slammed the door shut. He wasn't angry that he'd been turfed out; he'd been fine about not being invited. He was angry about how upset, them, throwing him out had made Adrianna. Her mother had publicly humiliated her own daughter. He hated the way her mom treated her and hated the fact she could never accept him. Marla couldn't accept Adrianna's choices and that just angered him a little because he thought she was amazing. She was dedicated to her job, had so much love to give and she knew exactly wanted in her life. The reasons he loved her. He didn't understand how she could be so disapproving of her own child. His father had always encouraged him to do what he wanted. He sat there for a while before starting the engines and moving away. He decided to head to work to keep his mind busy.

He landed a case within in minutes of walking in the door. He headed there and met up with Danny and Stella. "Don't you look smart?" Stella smiled.

"Where've you been dressed like that?" Danny asked "A casino or a drug deal?"

"I was at a wedding" he replied.

"Who's wedding?" Stella asked.

"Adrianna's sister's wedding. She asked me if I would come as her friend because she didn't have anyone to go with." he explained.

"Good wedding?" asked Stella.

"I don't know they threw me out before the ceremony started" he laughed "Her mom wasn't impressed she brought some stranger and had the bodyguards escort me out of the building"

Meanwhile Adrianna was sitting through her sister's wedding. She was fuming that her mother had had Flack thrown out. She watched half aimlessly, half lovingly as Elena and Marco said their vows before being declared husband and wife.

After the ceremony was the reception held at Marla and Kyron's house. Lonely she got onto the alcohol. Blokes tried chatting her up and touching her so she would open her purse and flash her gun which encouraged them to piss off. She downed several pints, several glasses of vodka and numerous shots. By the end of the night she was wrecked and showing herself up. She ended up staggering outside into the garden where the swimming pool was. She kicked her heels off and took her dress off. She took a sip from her bottle of vodka before putting it on the floor. She ran and jumped into the pool making a big splash. Some people came out of the house to smoke. "Hey come in the pool!" she slurred happily. So the three blokes and two girls all came and jumped in the pool.

Then Sofia came out and she too jumped into the pool and everyone had a splash fest. But then Elena came out and saw them all in the pool. "Everyone get out of the pool right now!" she snapped. Everybody except for Adrianna and Sofia got out of the pool. Furious Elena stormed back inside. "Mom Adrianna and Sofia have jumped in the pool and won't get out!"

"For Christ sakes" Marla seethed before going outside to sort them out. "Sofia Marcus get out of the pool right now!"

"Yes mom" she giggled before climbing out and stumbling back inside.

"You too Adrianna get out!" Marla snapped.

"No" she shook her head "I'm going to have a nice swim"

"ADRIANNA MARCUS GET OUT OF THE POOL RIGHT NOW!" Marla shouted "I MEAN IT GET OUT RIGHT NOW!"

"No" she giggled.

"GET OUT OF THE POOL THIS INSTANCE!" Marla boomed. Adrianna reluctantly climbed out of the pool and put her dress back on. "GO INSIDE AND I'LL CALL YOUR ARSEHOLE BOYFRIEND TO COME AND TAKE YOU HOME YOU DISGRACEFUL COW"

Elsewhere Flack was in the lab waiting for fingerprint evidence from Danny. His phone started ringing so he answered it. "Hello… bloody hell calm down… stop shouting my ear… fine I'll be there in twenty minutes… goodbye!"

"Who was that?" Danny asked looking curious and mischievous all at the same time.

"Adrianna's mother. Apparently she's drunk and she wants me to come a pick her up and take her home" he replied.

"Can't she call a taxi?" Danny laughed.

"Apparently not" he shook his head.

He went and picked Adrianna up from Marla and Kyron's house. He carried her to the car because she was absolutely wasted and put her in the front and did her belt up for her. At home he put her in bed and left her to sleep.

The following morning she had the worst hangover in history. "I'd give it ten minutes if I were you" she said coming out of the bathroom for the twenty fifth time. "God I have the worst hangover in the history of hangovers"

"That'll teach you for drinking all that booze" he smirked.

"Shut up" she hissed.

Soon it was Christmas and they spent it with his family. His dad, of whom he was the younger version, crazy Clare, who beneath it all was very really quite sweet and his grandmother. His brother dropped by in the morning to see everyone and met Adrianna for the first time. "Adrianna this is my brother Owen, Owen this my girlfriend Adrianna" Flack introduced them.

"Hi" Adrianna said shyly.

"Nice to meet you" his brother, Owen, smiled shaking her hand. "I've heard a lot about you"

"Oh" blushed slightly.

"It's all good" he laughed slightly. "Dad and gran say he never stops talking about you. I'm just glad he's found someone"

Flack's cheeks turned a bright shade of scarlet. She looked over to him and smiled. After a few minutes Owen and Flack went into the kitchen. "She seems nice" Owen commented.

"She is" Flack nodded, a smile on his face.

"Do you think she could be the one?" Owen asked.

"Yes" Flack smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: On the Line

A spate of rape/murders across Manhattan in the three months since Christmas, had left the residents terrified and it was up to the NYPD to put a face to the killer. 12th precinct was on the case and were trying to figure out the killers identity. However they were finding it tough as he always wore a condom to rape the women and always dumped their bodies, never leaving a single print. He always raped and murdered them in their cars before using their cars to dump the bodies. He'd never left a single print in their cars either or any DNA. The only thing he'd ever left on the victims was a single hair. Each victim had a single hair on their bodies which didn't belong to them. And the DNA from the hair wasn't a match to anybody in the system. Only the hairs were from the exact same man on each victim. Adrianna and Flack had interviewed numerous suspects but they hadn't been able to put a name to the killer rapist. But this was about to change. Not only would they put a name to the killer but it would end up putting Adrianna and Flack's careers on the line for a far different reason than you'd think.

A naked young woman had been found left for dead in Carl Schurz Park on the east side of Manhattan. She had been brutally beaten and it was amazing that she was still alive. By the time they arrived she'd already been rushed to the hospital. Danny and Sheldon were processing the scene. There was a lot of blood. "We pulled a hair from her body" said Sheldon

"What's the betting it's our serial killing rapist again?" Adrianna sighed.

"He didn't kill her. He strangled all of his victims" Danny replied "She was still here when we arrived and she didn't have strangulation marks on her neck. It might've been a different guy"

"She was naked, brutally beaten and dumped in a park with a single hair on her body" Adrianna countered "What are the chances that there is somebody else in New York with the exact same MO?"

"I don't know detective rich. Why don't you go and find out?" Danny retorted.

Adrianna glared at him. She decided to leave and head to the hospital to wait for the girl to come around.

"What's her problem?" Danny asked once she was gone.

"You!" Flack replied "Just give her a break. She just really wants the guy who's doing this"

"We all do" said Danny "She can't just jump to the conclusion it was the same man"

A few hours later the girl was out of surgery, although not conscious. Lindsay had arrived to process her by now and they both went into the girl's room. Before going in the doctor gave them the lowdown on her condition. She had a subdural hematoma, five broken ribs, a punctured lung and numerous bruises. She was stable but still on the critical list. That's when things got complicated. Adrianna looked at her and studied her briefly. While she had a tube coming out of her mouth and a black eye Adrianna still felt a sick, sinking feeling in her stomach. She recognised the girl. Her name was Stacie Ortiz, she was just 22 years old. She'd met Stacie through her counsellor, Jane, at a group session for rape survivors two years ago. Stacie, much like herself had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her father, who'd also sold her for sex to his friends. She stared at her feeling utterly mortified.

Lindsay noticed her staring at Stacie. "Are you ok?" she asked.

"Yeah I'm fine" Adrianna replied.

"Do you know her?" Lindsay quizzed before taking a picture of Stacie's black eye.

"No" Adrianna lied shaking her head. "Of course not. I have to go"

She dashed from the room and went straight to the precinct. She checked Stacie's father, John's record to see if he had been released. Stacie had admitted during group that her father had told her he was going to kill her when he was released. She read through his record and saw that he was still locked away in Ely. She logged off and went to Jane's office. She went over to the receptionists', Tina's, desk. "Hi Adrianna" Tina smiled. "You're not booked in to see Dr Danson until next week"

"I know. It's about Stacie Ortiz. Do you know if she has a car?" Adrianna explained.

"I don't know. You'd have to ask Dr Danson. She isn't in session at the moment. Just go in" replied Tina. So she went into Jane's office. She knocked on the door before going inside. "Hello Adrianna" she smiled. Jane Danson was a woman in her late forties. She was fairly slim and stood a little taller than Adrianna. She had blue eyes and short blonde hair. "Your session is next week but you know I'm always happy for you to drop in. How can I help you today?"

Adrianna closed the door and sat down in the chair in front of Jane's desk. Jane noticed that she was uneasy. "Are you alright Adrianna?" she asked softly.

"Yes… erm… you know Stacie Ortiz… she's one of your patients" Adrianna began.

"Yes I know Stacie" she nodded "She's such a sweet girl. Has something happened to her?"

"She's in Mercy hospital" Adrianna sighed "She's been badly beaten and probably raped by the Manhattan rapist killer. I just need to know. Do you know if Stacie has a car?"

"She doesn't. She can't drive either" Jane told her.

"Ok then she wasn't attacked in a car. I wonder if the guy who did this to her, knows her" Adrianna gulped slightly.

"How is she?" Jane asked.

"She had a subdural hematoma, five broken ribs, a punctured lung and a lot of bruises. She's in a medically induced coma for now and she's on the ventilator. She's stable but she's still on the critical list." Adrianna explained. "I haven't told them her name yet. As soon as I recognised her I came to see you."

"Did she not have any id on her when she was found?" Jane asked.

"When she was found she was naked with no personal belongings on her. No identification" Adrianna shook her head. "I recognised her the moment I saw her in the hospital but I haven't told anyone. Now I know she doesn't have a car I know they won't find her id. We have to find out where he attacked her."

"Do you know where Stacie lives?" Jane quizzed.

"I know roughly. I've driven her home a couple of times. Though I didn't know whether or not she had a car because doesn't live very far from here" Adrianna replied.

"I'll get it for you" said Jane. She fetched something from a cabinet then scribbled something down on a post-it note before handing to Adrianna. "I hope you find out who did this"

"I will" Adrianna promised her before leaving.

She went to Stacie's apartment and found the door wide open. She took her gun from its holster and went inside. She saw blood on the floor and backed out of the apartment. Knowing this was the primary crime scene she left immediately. She left the door as she found and headed down to her car. She took her phone out and switched it back on. She made a call and got hold of the building superintendent. He came straight over. "Bob wright, building super. How can I help you detective?" he asked.

"Do the CCTV cameras on the sixth floor work?" she asked.

"Yes. I had them serviced just last week" he nodded. "Why?"

"The woman who lives in apartment 655 was found near dead in Carl Schurz Park earlier this morning and I found blood in her apartment" she explained. "I need to know who dumped her there"

"Follow me" he replied. He led her to a small room in the basement filled with cameras. "When would this have happened?" he asked.

"Anywhere between eleven last night and six am this morning" she replied. He rewound the tape to eleven and left her to it, stating that she should just close the door on the way out and it would lock because the door needed a passcode to enter but not to exit. She trawled through the footage until she finally saw a man carrying Stacie from her apartment at 3:30am. She seemed to be unconscious and not moving. However she could just about make out that Stacie was still breathing. Frustratingly the attacker was not only wearing a hoodie but a balaclava as well. He even looked up at the cameras to acknowledge them. This man was a sick, calculating son of a bitch. He had planned this in advance. She released the tape from the player and put it in her bag.

She headed back to her car and made a phone call to Jane. "Do you have the address for Stacie's brother, Paul?" she asked.

Jane gave her his home address and the name of the company he worked for. She thanked her before heading to his home, where he was not then onto his workplace, where she found him. She told him what had happened to his younger sister then asked him if he knew whether or not she was seeing anyone. "Not that I know of" Paul shook his head. "She did say she was having trouble with someone in her therapy group but she didn't tell me his name"

"Ok thank you Paul" she thanked him before leaving. She got in her car and went to start the engine when her cell started ringing. She took her cell and saw Don as caller id. She answered it and held it to her ear. "Hello?"

" _Adrianna where are you?" he asked._

"Erm nowhere" she replied.

" _Adrianna what are you doing?" he quizzed. "Lindsay said you left the hospital in a hurry after staring at the victim. Then you went to the precinct then left without telling anyone where you were going. Where are you?"_

"Jacksons Mechanics" she sighed "Look there's something I need to tell you. Are you at the precinct?"

" _Yeah?" he replied._

"I'm now on my way back. I'll find you when I get there" she told him before hanging up. She drove back to the precinct and found him. She pulled him into an empty interrogation room. "What's going on?" he asked.

"The Jane Doe who was found in Carl Schurz Park, I know her" she began. "Her name is Stacie Ortiz."

"Yeah I know. Her prints are in AFIS because she's been arrested for solicitation" he nodded. "How do you know her?"

"You know I see a counsellor?" she explained "Well she runs a group for rape survivors. I met Stacie there two years ago. She's really shy. Group is only once a month and I see her there every month. I know she goes to another group that Jane runs as well."

"So what have you been doing?" he questioned.

"Well I went to see my counsellor Dr Jane Danson who told me Stacie doesn't have a car, she can't even drive. Then I went to her apartment where I found blood. So I called the building super who let me take a look at the CCTV." She told him pulling the tape out of her bag "I saw a guy carrying her from her apartment. She was still dressed. She was also unconscious. But the bastard was wearing a balaclava. He even looked up at the camera like he knew it was there. So I went to see her brother who told me that she'd been having trouble with one of the guys in group but she didn't tell him his name"

"Nice work. You should've called the scene at her apartment in" he replied.

"I know but I should have but I wasn't exactly supposed to be there. And how was I supposed to explain how I found it without telling everyone that I know who she is? I don't want to tell people that I know her because she was raped. She deserves dignity" she told him "I knew once her prints went into AFIS they'd find out who she is because of her arrests for solicitation. I knew once you'd found out who she was you'd go there."

"Well Danny and Sheldon are there now." he told her. "Have you left you prints behind?"

"No" she shook her head. "I've got the CCTV tape though. They're going to realise it was me"

"I'll just tell Danny I already have it" he shrugged.

"He won't believe that" she shook her head "for a start you haven't been there have you?"

"No" he replied. "I tell him I called the super and he dropped it off"

"He'll buy that." Adrianna agreed.

So Flack made the call and told Danny he already had the CCTV tapes so he didn't need to bother getting in contact with the building super to get them.

Just over an hour later Danny arrived at the precinct and pulled them both into the same empty interview room that Adrianna had taken them to. "You lied to me" he said angrily, gesturing his finger at Flack.

"About what?" he asked.

"The CCTV tapes." Danny snapped. "I thought it was weird that the super would drop the tapes off at the precinct so I called him. Guess what. You never called him!"

"I don't know what you're talking about" he shrugged.

"Yes you do!" Danny hissed. "The super said a female detective was there less than two hours before we got there. He said her name was detective Adrianna Marcus. Maybe you don't know what I'm talking about but Adrianna does. So how did you find that crime scene before us without even knowing who she is?"

"Because I do know who she is" Adrianna admitted.

"You know her!" Danny exclaimed "Even better. Come on then. Tell me how you know Stacie Ortiz"

"That's none of your business" she retorted.

"Do you want me to go to your bosses and tell them you're withholding information in an ongoing investigation?" he hissed.

"Do you want me to tell Mac that you're threatening me?" she snapped.

"Don't play games with me Adrianna" Danny glowered "How do you know this woman?"

"Danny it's none of your business" she shook her head angrily.

"Flack tell her to spit it out" Danny asked his friend.

"Adrianna" he said "Just tell him."

"I met her at group therapy ok" Adrianna caved.

"You go to group therapy?" Danny raised his eyebrow.

"Yes" she nodded. "But that's all you need to know"

"So you knew where she lived and went to her apartment. If you found the blood why didn't you call it in?" he asked.

"Because I knew you'd find out who she was as soon as her prints were put through AFIS" she replied.

"You do know you've potentially jeopardised our investigation" Danny hissed.

"Yes" she nodded.

"I'm going to tell Mac and he'll tell your lieutenant about you going off and conducting your own investigation." Said Danny.

"Danny don't do that. It was a mistake." Flack interjected. "No one has to know that Adrianna picked up the tape before we found out who she was. I'll just say I picked it up."

"Fine but one more mistake and I'm telling your boss" Danny hissed at Adrianna before leaving the room.

"Well that was total cock-up!" she exclaimed.

Two days later Stacie woke and told them exactly who had attacked her. His name was Brandon Harris. He was one of Jane's patients. He attended another one of Jane's group sessions, childhood abuse survivors, which Stacie had also attended. So they tracked him down to his place of work and arrested him.

Adrianna spoke to Jane. "We've arrested Brandon Harris for the attack on Stacie" she told Jane. "She told us he was the one who raped and beat her."

"Brandon Harris is one of my patients" Jane trembled.

"I know" Adrianna nodded "And I know that he attended your childhood abuse survivors group too, like Stacie"

"Stacie stopped coming a few months ago" Jane admitted "Brandon kept trying to ask her out on dates but she refused. He would stare at her for ages during sessions, I saw him touching her breasts several times too and banned him from a session. But he kept doing it and she stopped coming."

"We think Brandon may have attacked and killed the other seven women as well" Adrianna told Jane.

"Adrianna I should have told you this before" Jane began "The seven women who have been raped and murdered over the last three months murdered were all patients of mine"

"All of them?" Adrianna asked.

"Yes" Jane nodded. "And all of them came to the childhood abuse survivors group. I think Brandon's been murdering my patients"

"Why would he do that?" Adrianna quizzed.

"To get back at me for permanently banning him from the childhood abuse survivors group." Jane replied. "He said I would pay"

Adrianna followed up on this and confirmed that Brandon Harris had definitely been permanently banned from the group. She also confirmed that all seven of the women who had been raped and murdered in the last three months had all been patients of Dr Jane Danson. However there was only one piece of evidence linking him to their murders, the hair he'd left on their bodies and the only evidence tying him to the attempted murder of Stacie Ortiz was her identifying him and his hair. It was his word against hers.

He was taken to arraignment and because of the lacking evidence was released on bail. Stacie was terrified and Adrianna made several phone calls and had her put into witness protection.

However it wasn't over…

A week later cops were called to Brandon Harris' apartment after neighbours had heard gunfire. When they arrived there Brandon was dead and the killer was gone. Adrianna, Flack, Danny and Stella were sent to the scene. "I know I shouldn't say this" said Lindsay "But this guy had it coming to him."

Adrianna nodded in agreement.

Stella was able to life prints from the gun however they weren't a match to anyone in the system. However CCTV showed a woman leaving the apartment moments after Brandon had been shot. Adrianna saw the CCTV footage and felt sick. "I know her" she stammered to Stella and Flack.

"You do?" Stella frowned "How?"

"She's my counsellor" Adrianna replied "Dr Jane Danson"

Jane was arrested and her prints were taken. They matched those on the bullet recovered from the scene. They found a gun in her desk drawer which was soon confirmed to be the murder weapon. Adrianna and Stella went to interview. "Jane why did you kill Brandon?" Adrianna asked softly.

"Because he killed seven women. Seven of my patients. He raped and beat Stacie." Jane replied "And yesterday Georgia Hanson came to me and told me that Brandon had raped her"

On the other side of the glass Danny, Flack and Mac were dumbfounded. "How did Dr Danson know that Brandon killed them and how did she know he raped and beat Stacie?" Mac questioned. "Because we didn't make it public who attacked Stacie and it was never made public that he was a suspect in the seven rape/murders"

"Because Adrianna told her" Danny replied.

"What?" Mac frowned.

"Dr Jane Danson is Adrianna's counsellor. She's counselled her for the last fourteen years" Danny explained.

"How do you know that?" Flack asked.

"Because I did some checking." Danny shrugged. "Adrianna told Dr Danson that Brandon Harris raped and beat Stacie and she must've told her that he was a suspect the seven rape/murders"

Not long after two officers from IAB turned up. They wanted to know how Dr Danson had found out that Brandon Harris had attacked Stacie Ortiz and was a suspect in the seven rape/murders. They introduced themselves to be Sergeant Alicia Munn and Detective James Hunt.

It wasn't long before they were looking at Adrianna's past history with Dr Danson. Before she knew it they were interviewing her. "Did you tell Dr Danson that Brandon Harris attacked Stacie Ortiz?" sergeant Munn asked.

"Yes" Adrianna replied.

"Did you tell Dr Danson where Brandon Harris lived?" detective Hunt asked.

"No" Adrianna shook her head.

"You see we've been told that not only do you know Dr Jane Danson but that you're one of her patients" said sergeant Munn. "How long have you known Dr Danson?"

"That's confidential" Adrianna defended.

"This a criminal investigation detective Marcus." Sergeant Munn reacted "How long have you known Dr Danson"

"Since I was seventeen" Adrianna replied "So fourteen years"

"And how often do you see Dr Danson?" sergeant Munn asked.

"Once a week until I was 19, twice a month until I was twenty one and once a month for the last ten years" Adrianna told her.

"So you have gotten to know her pretty well then" said detective Hunt.

"I guess" Adrianna shrugged.

"Ok. We know the address she has for Brandon Harris is different to the one he resided in until she killed him so how did she find it out?" sergeant Munn explained "Did you tell her where he lived?"

"No!" Adrianna replied "I didn't tell her"

"You must have done. I mean you told her that he attacked Stacie Ortiz and was a suspect in seven brutal rape/murders!" sergeant Munn fired back.

"I didn't tell her where he lived!" Adrianna retorted.

"If you didn't how did she find out?" sergeant Munn questioned.

"I don't know" Adrianna replied.

The interview was terminated and they went their separate ways. However the IAB officers were far from done. Soon they were asking questions about Adrianna had handled the case and someone let slip about her seeing Jane, Stacie's brother Paul and the building super before telling anyone she knew who Stacie was. Soon she was back in interview. "Why didn't you tell your colleagues that you recognised Stacie Ortiz as soon as you realised who she was?" sergeant Munn asked.

"Because I didn't want people know she was a victim of prior abuse" Adrianna replied "I know Stacie through group therapy and I know she suffered. If I told someone they'd question how I knew her and I didn't think she deserved me telling people about her past. And I knew that she would be identified because she has arrests for solicitation"

"Ok. Why didn't you call the scene in when you found it?" detective hunt asked.

"How was I supposed to explain how I got there?" she responded.

"You went to see Dr Danson before finding the crime scene. Was it there you conspired with her to frame Brandon Harris?" sergeant Munn questioned.

"We didn't frame him. I went to ask her if she knew if Stacie had a car because all of the other victims were raped and killed in their own cars. When I found out Stacie didn't have a car I went to her apartment and found blood on the floor."

"Yet you didn't call it in" said sergeant Munn.

"I shouldn't have been there" Adrianna replied.

"And what about the CCTV tapes?" detective hunt asked. "Detective Flack is saying that he collected it but we think you did. We've been told you saw the building super."

"I didn't have proof of the attack so he wouldn't give me the CCTV tapes" she lied. Flack had told them he'd picked them up. What was he playing at? He could lose his job for that!

"If even that's true you still ignored protocol. You should've have called the scene in when you found it and you should've have admitted you know the victim. You should've removed yourself from the case" sergeant Munn stated. "You have already admitted to telling Dr Danson that Brandon Harris had attacked Stacie Ortiz and was a suspect in the rape/murders of seven of her patients. Why wouldn't you tell her where he lived? You knew that he preyed on Stacie and attempted to molest her, you know he raped and attacked her. Why wouldn't you tell her?"

"I didn't tell her" Adrianna snapped.

"Yes you did!" sergeant Munn retorted. "Admit it"

"Even if I did I had nothing to do with his death. I had no idea she was going to kill him!" Adrianna caved. "At least Stacie Ortiz and the other girls got justice. I never saw my rapist brought to justice."

Dr Danson told the IAB officers that Flack had told her where Brandon Harris lived and not Adrianna. Not only that the building super corroborated Adrianna's false story. He had told the IAB officers that Flack had picked up the tape after they'd identified her and started processing the scene. When Adrianna found out, she went ballistic. She managed to keep it bottled up for a while… well until they got home they night. When she let rip on him. "Sergeant Munn told me something very interesting" she began, trying to remain calm.

"Did she?" he shrugged.

"Yes she told me that you told her that you were the one who told Jane where Brandon Harris lived and not me" she said. "Which we both know isn't true"

"And?" he responded causally.

"Don why is she saying you told her?" Adrianna asked, her anger rising fast.

"Because I told her to" he replied.

"Why?" she questioned angrily.

"Because you didn't know she was planning to kill him. You didn't know he'd raped somebody else." He explained. "He got what he deserved Adrianna."

"Ok that I understand. But there is something I don't understand" she gritted her teeth.

"Oh yeah?" he frowned "What's that?"

"The building superintendent is corroborating my false story about not collecting the CCTV tape" she retorted.

"Is he?" he smirked slightly.

"How did you get him to agree to that?" she demanded.

"I threatened him with a call from the health and safety board. And when I told him that the CCTV tapes you had collected had caught the man responsible for seven rape/murders, two rapes and one attempted murder he was more than happy to lie for you" he explained.

"Why?" she asked. "What the hell were you thinking? You could lose your job! If they find out what you've done your career will be over! Why the hell would you put your career on the line like that?"

"Two reasons. One because you didn't do anything wrong." He replied. "And two… because I love you. You made a stupid mistake and you had no idea what Jane would do. You've lost enough in your life and I know how much your job means to you and if me lying means you got to keep your job then I don't care."

"You're such an idiot sometimes!" she exclaimed.

"I know" he smirked.

"And that's why I love you" she smiled before kissing him. "Thank you."

Adrianna was soon cleared of criminally negligent homicide and because of the dead man's status so was Flack. Jane took a deal, she would only serve five years because the DA deemed it a justifiable homicide.

Adrianna could not believe that Flack had gone that far to cover up her mistakes. He'd put his career on the line to save hers.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: A Falling Angel

The months flew by and they celebrated their second anniversary. They went out to dinner in a quiet restaurant then headed back to their apartment. Flack poured them each a glass of wine while Adrianna put on some music. "Two years and counting" Adrianna smiled holding her glass in her hand.

Flack switched on the radio and held out his hand to her. "Like to dance?" he asked.

"Yes please" she smiled placing her hand in his and standing up. The first song they listened to was quite upbeat the song which followed was much softer. The song was _This I Promise You_ by Ronan Keating. They danced to the music whilst wrapped up in each other's arms. "I'll look after you Adrianna" he said softly. "I promise you". She smiled softly at him then rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Inside her head she said a silent prayer. "Please let me be happy. Please let me have this"

After a while they stopped dancing and rested down on the sofa. Adrianna looked at him before snuggling into his chest. "Have you ever thought about having children?" she asked quietly.

"Not really" he shook his head "Well actually recently I have"

"Really?" she frowned. He nodded. A smile spread across her face.

"Have you?" he asked.

"Of course I have" she nodded. "But I've never wanted it until now. My grandmother used to tell me that I should wait until I found someone special. Not rush into it with someone I barely know. To wait until I had my head screwed on and knew I was in a stable, loving partnership. And I love you. I love you like I've never loved anybody before in my life. You're the only person that makes me feel worth anything. I know that is everything I need. Because you mean everything in the world to me"

"And you mean everything to me" he smiled softly. "I want to be with you for the rest of my life because I love you"

She smiled, her eyes slightly watering. "I never want to be with anyone else. You make me feel so safe. That's why I know I want this with you and no one else. I want to have a family with you. Do you?"

"Yes" he replied "I do". She reached up and kissed him on the lips. "How about we start now?"

"Really?" she asked, smiling brightly.

"Yeah" he smiled. He stood up and held out his hand to her. She looked at it and smiled before placing her hand in it. He led her into their bedroom and pushed the door to a close. She pulled open his bedside drawer open and reached inside. She took out the packs of condoms inside. "What shall we do with these?" she grinned.

"Flush them" he smirked. She ran into the bathroom and dropped them into toilet bowl before flushing them away. She went back into their bedroom where she stripped off to her birthday suit. He stripped off too and they fell into the bed. They wrapped themselves in each other's arms and kissed each other passionately. They were soon rolling about the bed making passionate love to one another.

The following day she made an appointment with the gynaecologist to have her IUD removed then threw her birth control pills in the bin. A week later she underwent the removal of her IUD and looked forward to becoming pregnant with her first child. Something she both wanted and desperately needed.

They soon celebrated Christmas together and enjoyed it alone. They exchanged gifts, had a small Christmas lunch then snuggled up together in front of the TV to watch _Miracle on 34_ _th_ _Street_.

In early February Adrianna's maternal grandfather, Pierro, died and the funeral was to be held in his hometown in Athens, Greece. She decided to go alone. Her mother, who had gone out there two weeks before he'd died, asked her if she would come a week before the funeral and stay for a fortnight as she'd need to be there for the reading of the will. She agreed and packed her bags to head straight there.

There she stayed in a hotel as she and her mom were not on the best of terms at the moment. Two days after arriving she woke just after five am with the extreme urge to vomit her guts out. She bolted into the bathroom and fell to the floor in front of the bowl before hurling into the toilet bowl. She vomited several more times before it passed.

This continued to happen over the next few days. The day before the reading of the will she finally realised what it might be. Feeling a tingle of excitement she headed to the nearest chemist and purchased several pregnancy tests. She headed back to her hotel room where she did all three of them. After waiting five minutes she turned them over. She saw two blue lines of each of the tests. She picked one up in her hand and stared at it. It was positive. She was pregnant. She smiled slightly and rested her other hand on her flat stomach.

The following day she attended the reading of the will with the rest of the family. Her grandfather's lawyer read the will, reading off what they'd all been left. After an hour he'd finished and she was in silent tears. He'd left her absolutely nothing. Of course he'd left something to Marla as she was his only daughter; he'd left money to Elena, Sofia and Alex too. He'd left money to Pax, Christianos and Phoenix. He'd left money to his two sons, their wives, their children and grandchildren. He'd even left money to Kyron. But he'd left absolutely nothing to her. She was the only one to get absolutely nothing. That hurt. She knew he was very much like Marla in his beliefs towards her life and career choices but the fact that he hadn't left her a thing stung. Even in death he was making it clear what he thought of her life choices.

She didn't hang around the family after the lawyer had left Pierro's house. She didn't want to be there. She headed for the front door but a hand grabbed her wrist and spun her round. "Where are you going Adrianna?" Marla demanded.

"Back to my hotel" Adrianna replied shaking Marla's hand away from her wrist. "I'm booking myself on the next flight home"

"Why?" Marla asked folding her arms.

"Because I want to go home" Adrianna sighed.

"Come on stay and have a drink with us. Toast your grandfather's memory" said Marla.

"No, I don't want to" she shook her head. She couldn't either because she was pregnant but that wasn't the point. "I want to leave"

"You are so rude" Marla hissed. "Your grandfather has died and all you can think about is yourself"

"I don't want to be here" Adrianna stated firmly.

"Why not?" Marla challenged.

"He didn't leave me a thing!" Adrianna snapped "Not that I wanted his money but that isn't the point. He left money to everybody else. Even to Kyron. But he didn't leave me a thing and do you know what? That stings like hell. I know he hated me for going my own way in life like you do but even in death he has to stick it to me that I'm not acceptable!"

"You are such a self-centred little bitch" Marla sneered "Go on maybe you should go!"

"I will" Adrianna huffed before leaving. She took a taxi back to her hotel where she booked herself on a flight home. She packed her things and took another taxi to the airport. Two hours later she boarded her flight home.

She arrived home to New York nine and half hours later, where it was eight o'clock in the evening. She took a taxi home and let herself into her apartment. The apartment was empty so she flopped down on the sofa and flicked on the TV. Not long after the door opened and Flack came inside. "I thought you weren't flying back for another three days?!" he exclaimed slightly.

"I got an earlier flight" she replied.

"Did something happen?" he asked sitting down beside her on the sofa.

"Sort of yeah" she sighed. "I went to the reading of my grandads will and found out he didn't leave me a thing. He left money to my mom obviously, both of my sisters, my brother and their children. He left money to mom's brothers and their families. He even left money to Kyron but he didn't leave anything to me. I was the only one he didn't leave money to. And it hurts"

"Why would he leave you out?" Flack frowned.

"Because he's just like my mom" she looked down, tears in her eyes. "He hates me for doing what I wanted in life. He just wanted to stick it to me. It's not like I wanted anything from him but it just really stings that I was the only who didn't get a thing. It just made it clear how much they all hate me. My grandmother was the same before she died. But I did get some good news"

"What's that?" he asked. She stood up and went over to her suitcase. She unzipped it before reaching inside and taking out one of the positive pregnancy tests. She walked back over to him, sat down on the sofa and handed it to him. "I'm pregnant" she smiled.

A soft smile spread across his face. Then they hugged each other tightly and kissed each other passionately. Things were falling neatly into place. So what if their whole relationship was a complete secret from everyone they worked with and so what if people didn't like her and would judge him for being with her if they found out they had each other. What they had was perfect for them, it was right for them and that was all that mattered.

 _I love you, not_

 _Because you are perfect_

 _But_

 _Because you are_

 _Perfect for me_

She went to see the doctor a few days later who told her she was about eight weeks pregnant and booked her in for her first proper obstetrics appointment at twelve weeks.

So four weeks later she, along with Flack, went to her first scan. The nurse squirted the gel on her stomach. "That's cold" she whispered shivering slightly. The nurse smiled before placing the probe on her stomach. She slowly moved it around before picking up a gentle, but incredibly fast, thudding sound. Their baby's heartbeat and it was incredible. They both stared at the screen, at their baby and smiled. "Is it healthy?" Adrianna asked.

"So far everything looks healthy" the nurse smiled "He or she has a strong heartbeat. That's good"

After wiping the gel off the nurse handed them a picture of their unborn baby and they left. "I want this baby more than anything in the world" she admitted as they headed back to the car. "The moment I heard the heartbeat I felt something ignite inside me."

When they got home that night Adrianna stuck it in the middle of their fridge and smiled. She was so happy right now. But she knew someone who wouldn't be.

She couldn't wait to tell her mom about her baby news. Sure they hadn't been seeing eye to eye at all lately because her mom disapproved her choice of men. And by that, Flack in his entirety. She wouldn't even try to get to know him because he wasn't like them, he wasn't their class. He was working class, from a working class family and it didn't faze him. Whereas Adrianna was from a wealthy background, therefore a high class family. However she wasn't proud of it at all and lived as a working class citizen. Her mom had always had trouble accepting Adrianna just didn't like being rich or from a rich background and that she wanted to work to earn her keep. And she had always disliked the idea of her being a cop. She had always told her if she wanted to work she should be a lawyer or a doctor, high earners. But she'd always been determined to make her own choices and had always wanted to be a cop. Adrianna was a big girl now and it was déjà vu all over again. With Flack. Marla had liked Ben because he wanted to be rich and she didn't like that Flack didn't want to be rich because all money brought was problems and greed. She loved him, he loved her. They were happy and they were having their first baby together, they were looking forward to it and planning ahead.

Flack didn't much care for what her mother thought of him, although it irritated him that she could be so hard on her own daughter for her choices in her own life and that Adrianna was so desperate for her mother's approval. He got on with her brother, Alexander and his two sons. Elena and her husband, Marco were not keen on him and the idea of him and Adrianna being an item. He didn't know what Sofia thought of the situation, Adrianna had told him Sofia thought he was cute but would never date him because he was a cop. Her stepfather gave him such mixed feelings on the situation that he just didn't know what he thought of it at all. Now he knew how Adrianna felt. She was barely accepted by her own family and no one where they worked really accepted her, because she was different. Her family didn't really accept him because he was different to them.

She was now out of the danger period and it was time to tell people. Her mom and stepdad were in Greece and she wanted to wait until they were back. Telling people at work would be a nightmare. So she told her brother then she and Flack went to his dads to tell him in person. He let them in with his key. "Hey dad" he said.

"Hey son" a voice replied from another room.

"Where are you?" Flack asked.

"I'm in the bedroom" the voice replied. So he and Adrianna went into the bedroom where they found his dad, Donald flack senior, rooting through a wardrobe. "Dad what are you doing in there?"

"Looking for your baby photos" he replied

"Why? They're all embarrassing" replied flack

"Your grandmother wants a load of them. Don't ask me why. I don't know" replied Donald senior.

"It's easier just to go with it with gran anyway" said Flack.

"So did you two come round for any specific reason" he asked standing up.

"We just came to tell you you're going to be a granddad" said flack casually. The older man stared at his son in disbelief.

"You've finally done the deed" he said finally a smile on his face.

"I hate it when you call it that. It's as embarrassing as those pictures" Flack groaned slightly "But yes"

"If your mother were still alive she would be hugging you and Adrianna to death" said Donald senior "She always wanted more than just you, your brother and your sister. She wanted to be a grandmother before she died"

"I know" Flack sighed.

"So how far gone are you?" Asked Donald senior

"About fourteen weeks" smiled Adrianna patting her tummy "Here" she handed him her phone, showing a picture of the scan she'd had done two weeks ago.

"I remember when you were this small" he said in Flacks direction.

"Oh dad no. Don't." Said Flack.

"You were small for ages then you grew and now you're taller than me" said Donald senior handing Adrianna her phone back. "You have morning sickness?"

"Yes' she replied exasperatedly "I hate it. I have to lock him out of the apartment so he doesn't see. He's such a worry guts this one. I swear he sleeps with his gun under his pillow"

"When my wife had him she didn't stop throwing up for the first five months of her pregnancy. It was horrible. I had to lock his brother and sister in their rooms to stop them making it worse" said Donald senior "she threw up over me so many times"

"I haven't done that. Yet" she smirked it Flacks direction.

"Don't even think about puking on me" he rose his eyebrow.

"He was a nightmare baby that one" continued Donald senior "had his mum in and out of hospital like a yo-yo. Then he wouldn't come out"

"Dad!" He exclaimed.

"She was in labour for thirty two hours. I have never heard anyone scream that much in my life" he smiled "I don't what took him so long"

"He was probably chiselling a NYPD shield ready for his future career" Adrianna laughed.

"Very funny" said Flack.

"Looking at him now you wouldn't think he was only five pounds when he was born" said Donald senior.

"No you wouldn't" she agreed "you're how tall?"

"Six foot three" he replied.

"Ok now I want to see his baby photos" smirked Adrianna.

"Oh man" flack groaned. He was pleased they got on because it made up for mother and some members of her family disliking him, and her, so much. His dad fished out the pictures and they spent a while flicking through them. "Seriously you were small" she said looking at a picture of him as a tiny newborn "even I was bigger than that"

"Really?" He asked.

"Yeah I was fat and had a big head. According to my mum. She said I was her worst because I was the biggest and had a big head so I almost tore her a new one"

"She told you that?" Flack raised his eyebrow.

"When I was twelve" she replied shrugging "but I didn't do much growing. I faltered at five foot two and thought great. Born the fattest ends up being the shortest"

"They didn't have epidurals back then" said Donald senior "They have lots of fancy technology now."

"I know. Lucky me" she laughed.

Eventually they left and headed home.

Two weeks later she and Danny were put on a case. The suspect was a big ruthless thug and they both tried to restrain him but it resulted in him kicking her hard in the stomach. She went into his bathroom and saw spots of blood in her knickers. She started freaking out. She left and went over to Danny. "Danny I need you to drop me off at the hospital" she said getting into the car.

"No" he shook his head "He didn't kick you that hard and I gotta get this murderous son of a bitch back to the precinct"

"I'm bleeding" she said.

'No you're not' he shrugged.

"I am." Her eyes pointed down.

"Probably just your monthly" he shrugged again.

"No it's not" she shook her head "I'm pregnant"

"Oh" Danny gulped. "Fine I'll make a detour and drop you off on the way"

So he drove her to the hospital and left her to get checked over. The nurse performed a scan. "Have I miscarried?" She asked.

"No" the nurse shook her head "listen" so she listened and felt so relieved when she heard the baby's strong heartbeat "he or she's got one of the strongest heartbeats I've ever heard"

She looked at the screen and listened to her baby's heartbeat pounding away. She placed a hand on her small bump and sighed a massive sigh of relief. The baby was ok.

The nurse cleaned her up and she returned to work and told Flack what happened. She was a bit scared after the attack so she was put on lighter duties. She wasn't allowed to deal with any arrests hands on. She could be there but somebody else would have to catch and restrain the suspects. She was ok about that. She just wanted her baby to be ok.

One night when she was about eighteen weeks she was cooking dinner in the kitchen she felt a strange sensation in stomach. It only lasted a few seconds then disappeared again. She shrugged it off and carried on cooking. Then half an hour later she felt another similar pain. For a split second she was worried she might be going into labour but then she realised what it was. The baby was moving inside her. Their little one had moved for the first time. A smile flooded across her face and she couldn't wait to tell Flack when he finally got home from work.

About an hour later he finally returned home from work. She plated dinner and they sat down to eat. "I've got something to tell you" she smiled.

"What?" he frowned.

"The baby moved" she replied, a huge smile upon her face. "I felt the baby move inside me!"

"Really?" he asked, smiling too.

"Yes!" she nodded happily. "It was really weird!"

Later when they were watching the TV the baby became active again. She quickly grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. "Feel that?" she asked "That's our baby moving"

He nodded, smiling. Then he placed a gentle kiss on her lips. Could they finally have a life together? This little baby wriggling around inside her gave them hope.

At twenty weeks she went to the hospital for a scan. They had decided to find out the sex of their baby. The sonographer squirted the cold gel onto her growing bump. She giggled slightly. The gel always gave her a very tingly feeling. Then the sonographer gently placed the probe on stomach and carefully guided it around. Soon they could hear the baby's heartbeat pumping away at an incredible speed. The sonographer carefully studied the screen. "My" she smiled. "Your baby certainly is an active little one. Do you feel much movement?"

"Yes" Adrianna nodded, smiling "Usually when I'm trying to sleep. I can always feel little one moving about."

"That's a good sign then" the sonographer replied. "Would you like to know the gender of your baby?"

They looked at each other then, Adrianna nodded. "Right" the sonographer smiled. "I'm just going to take a good look. Will you stay still?!"

"What?" Adrianna asked, looking slightly startled.

"Your baby keeps moving about, all over the place!" the sonographer laughed. "Won't stay still long enough for me to see… oh nope got it!"

"And?" Adrianna asked hopefully.

"You're having a little boy" the sonographer smiled.

The nurse printed a picture off for them before they left. They headed to their car and headed home. "You must be chuffed" she said looking at Flack.

"What me?" he smirked "You can have a girl I mean not now in the future"

"Am I hearing this?" she asked "Are you suggesting after we have our little boy we try for another one?"

I don't know? Am I?" he replied "Maybe"

"Ok when we get over this one" she smiled softening up.

They were aware they would have to come clean about the relationship once the pregnancy became obvious because people would question who the father was.

Several days later Sofia called to say Marla and Kyron were home from Greece after a three month stint over there. "I should probably go alone" she said "She'll be pissed enough that I'm pregnant"

"She won't be pissed" said Flack.

"Yes she will" Adrianna sighed "Even if it is her grandchild"

"She won't be that annoyed about it" he frowned. Surely Adrianna was exaggerating how badly her mom would react? Unfortunately he was wrong.

That night after work she went to visit her mom and stepdad. "Mom you look amazing" smiled Adrianna

"Thanks. It was wonderful. We might move back permanently" gushed Marla "I forgot how much I loved being there"

"Really?" asked Alex.

"I don't know maybe" said Kyron "Being there made us realise how much we miss being there"

"All your grandchildren are here" said Elena.

"Greek men are so fit" said Sofia "Can I come with?"

'If we go' smiled Marla.

"Mom" said Adrianna "I have something to tell you"

"You've broken things off with that cop" she said hopefully.

"No I haven't and that's cold" Adrianna snapped slightly. "Mom I'm twenty weeks pregnant. I'm having a little boy."

"You're what?" she scolded "Tell me you're playing a joke on me."

"Of course I'm not" tears welled in her eyes.

"It better not be his" Marla sneered.

"Of course it's his mom" said Adrianna, tears stinging her eyes "Who else's would it be? I've been faithful"

Marla stormed from the room and Adrianna went after her. "Adrianna no" said Sofia but she just went after her mom.

"Mom please" said Adrianna

"No Adrianna I can't believe yourself to allow yourself to be impregnated by a working class cop from queens" sneered Marla "He doesn't deserve you"

"Why not?" Adrianna demanded

"You're meant to be with someone of your own class and he's not your class" said Marla. "With somebody who has as much money as you do"

"That's it! You don't like him because he doesn't have money!" said Adrianna "I don't want to be high class it sucks. Money doesn't make me happy. It never will. I want to be working class and he's working class. He's my class"

"He wants your money" said Marla.

"No he doesn't. He loves me" replied Adrianna.

"He probably doesn't even want that working class baby you've produced" sneered Marla "He'll run off soon. Hopefully to be with someone of his own class"

"This baby was planned. We wanted this baby. He wants the baby just as much as I do" Adrianna seethed "Ask him mom ask him and he'll tell you. He will be a better dad to this baby than dad ever was to me"

"Kyron has been a dad to you" said Marla.

"I know he has" said Adrianna "He's been a good dad to me. A better dad than dad ever has been or will be."

"You haven't been a good daughter to him" Marla snarled.

"He raped me!" Adrianna exclaimed "He touched me. I don't want anything to do with him. He's evil"

"Your father never raped you!" Marla hissed "Don't lie!"

"Yes he did" Adrianna cried "Why don't believe me?"

"Because I know you're lying" Marla retorted. "Now I don't want to hear any more about your father raping you or this baby"

"Please mom" she said rather pleadingly.

"No. If it's his I want nothing to do with!" Marla snapped.

"Please mom, just look at the picture" Adrianna pleaded holding her twenty week ultrasound image out to her mother. But she refused and knocked it out of her hand. "I don't want to see that filthy baby. Now go away"

"I almost had a miscarriage" Adrianna tried to appeal to her mother's better nature. But she realised she didn't have one.

"I don't care" Marla shrugged. Adrianna kneeled down and picked her ultrasound image up as tears welled in her eyes. "Get rid of it"

Adrianna burst into tears and ran back to her car. She climbed in the driver's seat and buckled herself in. She started the engine and pulled out of the driveway as the tears flooded down her cheeks. How could her own mother be so cruel? How could she ask her to get rid of her child? She was so upset she could barely breathe.

Through her tears she didn't see that she moved to the other side of the road until headlights almost blinded her. She served back to the other side of the road but went too far and crashed into the traffic barrier. Then it all went black.

Ambulances and police were called to the scene. CSI was also called to work out who caused the collision. Mac headed over to Adrianna's car, not realising it was her car, and looked in through the driver's side window. He soon recognised her. "Adrianna?"

As they prised the door open Adrianna came to and started freaking out. Mac got in the passenger side and kept her calm until they got her out. "Can you call Don" she sobbed.

"As in Don Flack?" Mac frowned.

"Yes" she replied "He's my boyfriend"

"As soon as they get you in the ambulance" Mac nodded.

"I'm pregnant" she told Mac suddenly.

Soon they got her out of the car and put her on a stretcher. They loaded her into an ambulance and took her to hospital. Mac then called Flack who was watching TV.

Relaxing in front of the TV with a cold beer was usually his idea of a good night in but tonight was somewhat different. He was dreading what Adrianna's mom would say about her pregnancy. Adrianna had said she wouldn't be happy but she wouldn't be that unhappy surely? Unfortunately he didn't know that he was wrong and that her mother had caused her to accidentally almost kill herself.

His cell started to ring. He paused his programme and picked it up. Seeing Mac Taylor on the caller id he hit call and held it to his ear. "Mac"

" _You need to go to trinity general" Mac replied._

"Why?" he asked sitting up.

" _Adrianna crashed her car" Mac explained "She's conscious and talking though. She asked me to call you"_

"I'll go straight there" he replied before calling off. He switched the TV off, put his shoes on and grabbed his car keys. He drove straight to the hospital where he was directed to resus.

After having several x-rays which confirmed nothing was broken and that she only had a few cuts and bruises and a minor concussion she was taken up to a ward as they wanted to keep her in overnight. Once there he asked what had happened. "What happened?"

"I was crying" she admitted "I ended up on the other side of the road then I saw a car heading in my direction and I swerved to avoid it"

"Crying?" he frowned. "Why?"

"My mom" she looked down as tears welled in her eyes "She told me to get rid of the baby. I told her I almost had a miscarriage and she said she didn't care". Then she burst into tears. She told him everything her mother had said to her, which angered him. "She hates me" she sobbed. "My mom hates me"

"It's her loss" he sighed.

She was kept in overnight for observation then discharged the next day. She then had to take a week off work to recover.

Soon people at work noticed the pregnancy and asked Adrianna who the father was all thinking it was some rich geezer who had a gazillion bucks in his back pocket. Not one of their fellow detectives. Even Danny joined in on this. She told them he wasn't a rich millionaire geezer, just a regular guy. Then they said they didn't care and she didn't end up telling them it was Flack who had in fact impregnated her.

After finding out the gender of their baby they started buying things for him. They decorated his nursery pale blue. Then they started filling it with things. They put a wardrobe and chest of drawers up. Then they headed to the baby store and bought a crib and Moses basket for him. They started filling his drawers with clothes, blankets and nappies. They also bought a buggy that could fit a car seat. They were looking forward to being a family.

Then three weeks after she had told her mother she was pregnant she received a call from her mother telling her to come round. So she did. But what her mother had planned was far from pleasant…


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Mom That Broke Her Daughter

She wasn't sure why her mom wanted to see her. She'd been disgusted and clearly furious when she'd told her she was pregnant three weeks before. Maybe she'd come round to the idea. She hadn't been this angry when Alex had gotten Mia pregnant seven years ago.

She went alone to her mother's house. After parking up she went up to front door and calmly knocked on the door before her mom let her in. They went through the house and into the kitchen. "Would you like something to drink?" Marla asked "Coffee?"

"Just water for me" Adrianna replied patting her tiny bump. Marla poured her a glass of water and made herself a cup of coffee. They sat down at the table and Marla took a sip of her coffee. "Why did you ask me round?" Adrianna questioned.

"Because I realised I was wrong" Marla explained. "It took me a while to get my head around the idea of you having a baby with him. I shouldn't have told you to get rid of it Adrianna. That was horrible of me. It's just your my eldest daughter and you've always been so different. I didn't think you'd want kids, not with your job and all that. It was such a shock."

"Such a shock you had to be so cruel to me" Adrianna glared at her. "You didn't care that I'd almost had a miscarriage. You said and I quote 'I don't care, get rid of it'"

"I know I did" Marla sighed "I shouldn't have said that to you. You're my daughter and I love you"

"If you loved me, you'd accept what I do for a living, accept where I live and accept my boyfriend of two years!" Adrianna snapped. "You said it better not be his and that hurts. I would never cheat on him. Never even dream of it. I love him, more than you and dad ever loved each other."

"I do accept what you do and where you live" said Marla. "I even accept Donald"

"Do you?" Adrianna frowned cautiously.

"Yes I do" Marla nodded "I'm so sorry for what I said to you. I should never have said that to you. I'm sorry. And I do believe you."

"Believe me?" Adrianna asked.

"About your dad raping you" Marla replied. "I do believe you. It's I've always been afraid of him. He's got so much money and powerful lawyers, I knew if it went to court they'd destroy you and I couldn't bear that"

"I'd have been fine" Adrianna told her firmly. "I'm a big girl. I'm not weak. I could've stood my own in court. I don't think you realise how hard I've battled since my early teen years"

"I do Adrianna. I do" Marla said desperately "I was never really loved by my parents and I didn't know how to love you and your brother. I'm so sorry for everything I've ever done. I want to make it up to you. I want to be a good grandmother to your baby and a better mother to you. Please forgive you"

And in Adrianna's damaged mind that was enough to forgive her because to her she'd just been accepted by her mom. The only thing she'd ever wanted and now she had it. Her mom accepted her! "Ok" Adrianna smiled slightly.

"How are you feeling?" Marla asked, smiling.

"Great" Adrianna smiled. "My morning sickness isn't so bad now. I'm not quite so tired now either. I'm sore though, from my crash. I went for a scan yesterday just to check on the baby because of the crash. Thankfully everything was fine"

"That's good" Marla smiled back. "You're going to be a wonderful mommy to your baby. I think he will be a good daddy too."

"Thanks" Adrianna nodded, smiling.

"Are you still taking your medication?" Marla questioned looking more serious.

"I went to see my psychiatrist, Dr Melton" she explained "He's taken me off my usual medication and put me on something that is proven not to be harmful to foetuses"

"Good" Marla smiled. "I've got some vitamins for you to take for the next few weeks. They help ease the pain you feel in your breasts and ease your morning sickness. You need to take one of the first day then two, two days later. Then take two more two days after that if you don't feel they've helped."

"Thanks" Adrianna smiled as her mother placed a bottle in her hand, not realising she was handing her poison. Marla's love was poison and she was blissfully unaware of it.

"Listen Adrianna I booked us a flight to Greece. We're going to go and stay at your Auntie Letta for a week or two" Marla added.

"I'm not sure" Adrianna shook her head.

"It will be nice to have a little time to relax before the baby comes" Marla smiled.

"Can Don come?" she asked.

"No it's just for us two" Marla shook her head.

"I'll text him to let him know" Adrianna replied, agreeing to go with Marla.

They drove back to her apartment then headed for the airport. Two hours later they boarded the plane. Before long they were flying through the air, well on their way to Greece. They flew into Athens. A taxi drove them to her Aunt's house and they all had a long catch up.

Elsewhere Flack became worried when she did not return home (because he had not received a text from her) and couldn't get hold of her on her cell. "Come on pick up!" he cried desperately. But she didn't pick up. Panic flying through his veins he went to see Adrianna's mom hoping she might still be there. He knocked on the door and Kyron came to the door. "Is Adrianna here?" he asked.

"No she's not here" Kyron shook his head. "Why would you think she was?"

"She came to see Marla earlier and she hasn't come home" Flack explained.

"Oh well she isn't here now" Kyron replied. "I saw her leave about four. You can check the house if you want"

So he did. This proved that Adrianna was not there. She had been there earlier, he knew she had. So where was she? She always had her cell on, she almost never turned it off and she always answered him, just like he always answered her. So this was out of character. Then he realised Marla was also gone. "Where's Marla taken her?" he demanded furiously "WHERE IS SHE?"

"I don't know what you're talking about" Kyron shrugged.

"Yes you do!" Flack exclaimed angrily "She was here earlier. Tell me where she is!"

"I don't know where she is" Kyron replied "Now if you wouldn't mind leaving or I'll be forced to call the police"

"Tell me where she is and I'll leave" Flack gave him an ultimatum.

"I do not know where Adrianna is" Kyron smirked slightly before shoving him out of the house. "Now go!"

"Fine" Flack huffed. He stepped back and Kyron slammed the door shut. He left feeling like he'd just been lied to. He knew he'd been lied to. He knew Kyron knew exactly where Adrianna was and he knew this was all Marla's doing.

That night she took one of the pills before she went to sleep. She didn't know just what those pills were because if she had she would not have put them anywhere near her mouth.

The following day she followed her mother's instructions and took two of the pills. Two days later she didn't feel any different so she took more of the pills and in the following morning she did feel slightly different. She was ever so slightly lightheaded. "Mom I don't feel great" she said sitting herself down on a chair on the veranda.

"Maybe you should just take it easy today" Marla replied. "Sometimes being pregnant makes you feel a bit ill"

So Adrianna spent the day resting. She laid by the pool for a while and napped in her room but instead of feeling better, she felt worse. Then she realised something else. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt her little boy move. Siting at the dinner table she fiddled with her food as her stomach knotted itself with fear. "Are you ok Adrianna?" Marla asked concernedly.

"Mom I don't remember the last time I felt my little boy move" she replied tearfully.

Marla encased her in a protective hug and reassured her everything would be ok. Then after dinner she took the phone and booked her an appointment at a local clinic.

By now people back home, where they worked, had started to ask where she was. "Where's Adrianna?" Cass asked.

"She's gone on maternity leave" he lied because he didn't have a clue where really she was. How could answer that truthfully? He really didn't know.

Even Mac asked. "Where's Adrianna?" he asked "I heard she hasn't been seen since Tuesday"

"I don't know where she is Mac" he replied truthfully "She went to see her mom on Tuesday but she didn't comeback. I've been hoping she'll comeback but she hasn't. I don't have a clue where she is and I'm worried sick"

Mac persuaded Flack to report her missing. She was declared missing and registered as a missing person, leaving Flack beside himself with worry. Where was she? Was still alive?

Back in Greece, the following day her mom took her to see a local doctor, who gave her the worse news imaginable…

Sitting in the waiting room Adrianna's heart was beating at a million miles an hour. Not feeling her baby move for so long was a very bad sign. She knew that and she couldn't bear the idea of her baby having died inside her.

After waiting twenty minutes she was called in. The nurse asked her a few questions then did a scan. Adrianna heard nothing. The room was completely silent. Then the nurse said "Eímai akrivós prókeitai na párei éna giatró". ("I'm just going to get a doctor")

The nurse left the room and Adrianna started to feel her whole world crumble around her. She knew it. Her little boy was gone.

Five minutes later the nurse returned with a male doctor. He sat down and took a look at the screen then nodded. "Den ypárchei énas ktýpos tis kardiás. Fovámai moroú sas fýgei. Den ypárchei típote állo pou boroúme na kánoume. Eínai katá pása pithanótita tha páei stin ergasía fysiká mésa se mia-dyo méres"

In English that meant: "There isn't a heartbeat. I'm afraid your baby's gone. There isn't much else we can do. She'll probably go into labour naturally within a couple of days"

Adrianna burst into tears. How could this be happening to her? Didn't she deserve to be happy for once in her life? This couldn't be happening? Then she thought, how would she tell Flack what had happened? Would he blame her? Deep down she knew he wouldn't but in her damaged mind she just couldn't see it.

Back at her Aunt's house she shut herself away and cried. She couldn't deal with this pain. How could she? She'd suffered so much pain in her life that this blow was just so hard to take. She had suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse for years, been judged by everyone she'd ever met and had attempted suicide three times. She was not a person who would be able to deal with something as traumatic as this with great ease. Then a horrific thought popped into her mind. Her baby had been absolutely fine until she'd taken those vitamins.

She went downstairs and logged onto her cousins' computer and typed in the name of the vitamins but to her horror they did not exist. So she searched up abortion pills and on images she saw the exact pills her mother had given her. There was no doubt in Adrianna's mildly mutilated mind that her mom had known what they were when she had given them to her. She had given her an abortion without her even realising. How could she do that to her? How could she? Then she realised. Of course it was obvious wasn't it? Marla hadn't Flack and she did not want her to have his baby. She had never accepted anything about her life like she'd told her. She had lied to her. She knew how fragile she was and she knew just how to manipulate her. She'd made her believe she accepted her life, even Flack then used this to silently give her an abortion.

Adrianna closed the web browser down, ran up to the room she had been sleeping in and broke down in tears. Everything was gone. Adrianna was heartbroken. She felt her whole world crumbling down around her. She was pregnant with a dead baby; her dead baby. She felt sick to the stomach at the thought of what her mother had done to her and to him. She sobbed for hours and hours. Her baby was dead and her own mother had killed it. She hated her mother for what she had done. She had killed her own grandchild. The pain was unbearable. She'd never get to hold her baby, feel him breathing, hear him laughing or see him smile. She'd never see him take his first steps, say his first words or see him start school. Her mother had taken all that away from her. All those things a new mom had to look forward, all the things she had been looking forward to, they were all gone, and all because her mother hated Flack for being different.

Then about nine o'clock that night the door creaked open and Marla came inside. Adrianna was still curled up in a broken ball upon the bed. "Come out and have something to eat" Marla said softly.

"How could you?" Adrianna replied in a whisper, a whisper that conveyed the pain of a broken soul.

"I don't know what you mean" Marla responded, clearly playing ignorant.

"Yes you do, you gave me an abortion" Adrianna sobbed. "How could you?"

"He would've runaway" Marla justified herself and also freely admitted what she had done to her daughter.

"No he wouldn't" sobbed Adrianna. How could Marla try to justify her actions? "He loves me and he wanted our baby. HOW COULD YOU KILL MY CHILD?!"

"I did what was best for you" Marla replied.

"NO YOU DIDN'T!" Adrianna screamed getting up off the bed. "YOU DID IT BECAUSE YOU CAN'T BEAR THE THOUGHT OF ME GIVING BIRTH TO THE CHILD OF SOMEONE WHO ISNT LIKE US! YOU DIDN'T DO THIS TO MIA OR DISOWN ALEX!"

"Because Mia is nice and Alex is in a respectable job. Mia is a nurse. She is in a much safer profession" Marla tried to come up with an excuse but Adrianna was having none of it.

"NO. NO DON'T DO THIS!" She cried hysterically "YOU DIDN'T DO IT TO MIA BECAUSE YOU LIKE HER DESPITE THE FACT THAT SHE'S NOT FROM A WEALTHY FAMILY. YOU DIDN'T DO IT BECAUSE ALEX IS YOUR ONLY SON. YOU DIDN'T DO IT BECAUSE HE WENT INTO THE PROFESSION YOU WANTED HIM TO GO INTO. YOU HATE ME. YOU CAN'T ACCEPT ME FOR WHO I AM. AND YOU CAN'T ACCEPT THE FACT I LOVE A COP AND I WANT TO HAVE HIS CHILD. YOU JUST HATE HIM BECAUSE YOU'RE A STUPID SELFISH BITCH!"

"You little bitch!" Marla snapped before slapping her daughter round the face. Adrianna retaliated by hitting her mother back then pushing her over. Then she stormed away in disgust.

The following day she flew back to New York alone. Nearly all of the stewards' and stewardesses' and those sitting next to or near her asked if she was alright because she seemed so detached from the world. She lied and told them she was but she clearly wasn't.

When she got back to America she took a taxi back home and curled up in a ball on the sofa. She just laid there in silence, tears silently rolling down her cheeks. She was broken. She was a broken angel.

About four hours later Flack arrived home and froze when he saw her. "Adrianna" he choked. "Where've you been?"

"I went to Greece with my mom" she replied quietly, pushing herself up on the sofa and wiping her cheeks.

"You did?" he frowned.

"Yes" she nodded, feeling perplexed. She'd sent him a text telling him where she was going. She'd left him a voicemail too. "I sent you a text and I left you a voicemail on your phone"

"I never had a text or a voicemail" he told her, feeling confused.

"It must not have delivered" she exhaled, trying to hold herself together.

"I thought you were dead" he said softly taking her in his arms and holding her in a tight yet comforting hug.

"I'm sorry" she sobbed.

"It's not really your fault" he replied.

He asked if she was ok and she lied to him, telling him she was fine. She told him that she'd had lovely time in Greece and that she and her mom had worked to fix their ever strained relationship. But she couldn't bring herself to tell him their baby was dead and had been killed by her own mother. He would be devastated; he'd blame himself for it. How could she even begin to explain it to him?

In the days that followed she entered a downward spiral, everybody at work had something to say and she couldn't cope. Her whole world was crumbling around her and she just couldn't take it. She couldn't cope with what her mother had done to her and her baby. She was so confused. She was hurting. Thinking of all the pain, everybody at work hating her, her mother's overbearing preferences and constant interferences and all the things her dad had done to her, touching her, watching her and raping her. She struggled by from day to day, slowly breaking down. Flack could see it and he didn't know why and she wouldn't tell him. One day she found herself locked in the bathroom with a knife. She stabbed it into her arm and sliced her skin. Before long blood was gushing from her arm. Terrified she wrapped a towel round it and drove herself to hospital where she received stitches. Flack was furious and begged her to tell him what was wrong. But she refused and the pain just got worse. She couldn't carry on anymore.

One month after being told her baby boy was dead she snapped. "Why won't you tell anyone where you went?" Cass asked coldly.

"Because it's none of your business" she retorted.

That day after her shift she headed home and found some paper. She wrote a note for Flack and left in on the kitchen table. Then she rifled through the medicine cabinet and found a tub of painkillers that hadn't been opened. She took the lid off the bottle and tipped the whole thing into her mouth, downing them with a glass of water. Then she went into the bathroom and ran herself a bath. Ten minutes later she climbed into a hot bath. She soon became drowsy and eventually fell unconscious.

Flack arrived home shortly after. Seeing her things he realised she was home. "Adrianna?" he called out but there was no reply "Adrianna?"

He looked around and heard what sounded like someone in the bath. He knocked on the bathroom door. "Adrianna?" he asked. "Adrianna?" but Adrianna didn't respond. He managed to unlock the bathroom door from the outside and went in, where he was met by a horrific sight. She was under the water and she didn't seem to be moving. He went over and reached into the water and touched her. But she didn't move. He grabbed her arm and yanked her body into the sitting position. Her lips were blue and she didn't seem to be breathing. He lifted her out and placed her on the floor and frantically dialled 911 before administering CPR. "Come on Adrianna not now!" he cried desperately as he pressed frantically on her chest. "You've got so much to look forward to. Come on please!" The paramedics arrived within minutes and resuscitated her before rushing her to the nearest ER. He went with her. Had she tried to commit suicide? If so why the hell had she done it?

He didn't let go of her hand in the ambulance or once they got into the hospital where doctors and nurses joined them. "Adrianna Marcus, 33, found unconscious in the bath. GCS 5, pulse 65, BP 120 over 80, sats 75"

They took her into resus and started assessing her. "I want U's and E's, FBC and LFT" the doctor who appeared to be in charge. Doctors and nurses rushed round her, working frantically on her. "How far gone is she?" one doctor asked.

"About 29, 30 weeks" he replied anxiously.

"It's no good we're going to have to do a crash C-Section or we'll lose them both. Call the neonatal team." Another doctor announced "You'll have to leave sir"

So he went outside and watched nervously through the window as they cut her open and pulled a small baby from her body. He was tiny and not screaming which meant he probably wasn't breathing. They took the tiny baby to another bed to work on him while doctors worked on her. Two nurses and a doctor entered the room. They went straight over to work on the tiny baby boy.

The two nurses and the doctor left the room wheeling the tiny baby boy away in an incubator. Adrianna had been told he was dead and yet he seemed to be alive. One of the nurses informed him they had taken the baby to the neonatal unit and were moving Adriana to the ICU. They soon moved Adrianna too. They took her to ICU. He followed her up. He waited outside while they sorted her out. He was eventually allowed to go in. the doctor explained. "We have placed her on the ventilator to support her breathing and she is in a medically induced coma to preserve brain function. Her stomach has been pumped and the water has been drained from her lungs"

"Pumped?" he frowned.

"She overdosed" the doctor explained "She most likely took the pills, climbed into the bath and passed out"

"Why would she do that?" he asked heartbrokenly.

"I don't know" the doctor sighed.

"Will she be ok?" he asked quietly looking over to her.

"It's too early to say" the doctor replied "We don't know what the damage there has been to her brain. However early observations do suggest the chance for her survival is slim"

He looked down to the floor and felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. She was gone wasn't she? She'd taken her own life. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he fell down into the chair beside her bed. The doctor left them alone and he took her hand in his and clung tightly to it. "Why?" he sobbed "Why did you do this?"

He looked at her through his tears. She had a tube coming out of her mouth, which was the ventilator. She was covered in wires which were in turn attached to machines that beeped loudly. Those machines were the only things keeping her alive. "You have got to fight Adrianna" he whispered "You have to meet your baby"

He sat with her for a while before he left because it was becoming too much. He left and found out where the neonatal ward was and headed there. A nurse took him through to see their son and left him with the doctor in charge of his care. "He wasn't breathing when he was born as his lungs are slightly underdeveloped. We've given him a dose of surfactant to strengthen them and he is currently on the ventilator. Hopefully his lungs will develop and become stronger in time and he'll be able to come off the ventilator. He weighs 2lb 3oz" he explained "His eyes are still fused shut but they should open within a few days. There appears to be damage to one of his kidneys among other problems. He is very weak."

"Will he survive?" Flack asked, not getting his hopes up.

"I would like to think so, providing he doesn't contract any infections he will probably grow stronger and hopefully be ok. There may be certain developmental problems, learning difficulties, hearing or sight problems. These are common in premature babies" the doctor replied optimistically. "Also due him being premature he may not be able to feed properly at first but this common and eventually he will be able to feed normally. Would you like to see him?"

"Please" he nodded. The doctor led him into a room where there were several incubators, all surrounded by numerous machines. He led him over to one in the corner. He looked inside and saw a tiny baby boy with small tuffs of dark hair surrounded by and covered in wires. "You can touch him" said the doctor opening one of the portholes. He reached inside and touched the baby's tiny arm. He was warm to the touch and so soft. He felt tears in his eyes once more. He stroked his arm with his finger and watched his tiny chest gently rise and fall. He didn't know what to say or if he should say anything. It was so painful. The baby boy was fighting for his life and so was his mother. He stayed awhile before he went home.

Back home he found Adrianna's note on the kitchen table and he fell to pieces when he read it…


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Suicide Note

 ** _Well, I know the feeling  
Of finding yourself stuck out on the ledge  
And there ain't no healing  
From cutting yourself with the jagged edge  
I'm telling you that, it's never that bad  
Take it from someone who's been where you're at  
Laid out on the floor  
And you're not sure you can take this anymore_**

 _Dear Don_

 _I have some things I need to tell you about. Things that will hurt you. I didn't know how to tell you face to face. I was afraid of how you would react. Here goes…_

 _When I told my mom I was pregnant she was furious. She was disgusted and she told me to get rid of our baby. I was devastated. Three weeks later she called me and asked me to come round. She sat me down and told me that she was sorry for what she had said that night. Then she said she accepted me. Accepted where I live, how I live, where I work and who I love. I forgave her. She said I would be a great mommy and that you'd be a great dad. She gave me these pills to help me with my morning sickness and breasts aching. She said they were vitamins. Then she said she'd organised us a flight to Greece. I texted you and told you and left you a voicemail. I guess they didn't reach you. That night I took one of the pills then following day I took two more. They didn't help so two days later I took two more. Then the following day I realised I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt him move. Mom took me to a local clinic and the doctor confirmed to me that our little boy was gone._

 ** _So just give it one more try to a lullaby  
And turn this up on the radio  
If you can hear me now  
I'm reaching out  
To let you know that you're not alone  
And if you can't tell, I'm scared as hell  
'Cause I can't get you on the telephone  
So just close your eyes  
Oh, honey here comes a lullaby  
Your very own lullaby_**

 _I locked myself away and cried. After a while I realised everything had been fine before I'd take those pills. So I looked them up. Those vitamins don't exist. So I looked up abortion pills and I saw them. I knew my mom had given them to me deliberately. She gave me an abortion without me even realising how cruel is that? I couldn't understand how my own mother could kill my child. And she did it so far into my pregnancy that I would have no choice but to give birth to a dead baby. I wouldn't even get to hear him cry. How could a mother do that?_

"Oh Adrianna" he mumbled as tears welled in his eyes "How could she do that to you?"

 _I cried and cried. I didn't know what to do. I was consumed by grief. All I could think about was the things my mom had taken from me. Our sons first smile, first word, first steps. Taken away seeing him start school, graduating and having his own family. She took all that away. I was so angry that I had a go at her. Demanded to know why she'd done it and at first she tried to play dumb. She pretended not to know what I was on about. Then she stopped playing dumb and tried to justify her actions. She said she did it because you'd run away. She said she did what she thought was best for me. I said it was because she doesn't like you. I said she didn't do this to Mia and she didn't disown Alex. She said it was because Mia is in a respectable job and Alex is lawyer. I screamed at her to shut up and cried no. I told her she didn't do it because she likes Mia and Alex did what she wanted him to. I said you did this because you hate me and can't accept who I am and that I love a cop. I called her a selfish bitch. She slapped me._

 _Ever since I found out I haven't been able to handle it. I wanted to tell you but I was scared of how you'd react. I couldn't even bring myself to even begin to tell you what she'd done. I knew how much it would hurt you. I couldn't bear it. How was I supposed to tell you that our baby was murdered by my mother?_

 _I have always struggled to cope with my mother and her ideals. She has always tried to control my life. She has always made me do things I don't want to do. She forced me to take part in those pageants, put me on a diet when I was five and sent me to private school where I was taunted by the other kids for being different. She spent years trying to change me, trying to make me like her. I spent years cutting myself to shreds and starving myself to the point it almost killed me. She never realised it was a cry for help. And she never realised she was causing it. She never listened to me telling her what my father was doing to me. She never believed me. She told me I was lying. She said I made it up to spite her. I could never understand why she didn't believe me. I still don't understand. She has never told me that she even remotely believes me. In her eyes I am a spiteful little liar who sets out to rub everyone up the wrong way. I am a disgrace to her and I know that I always will be._

 ** _Please let me take you  
Out of the darkness and into the light  
'Cause I have faith in you  
That you're gonna make it through another night  
Stop thinking about the easy way out  
There's no need to go and blow the candle out  
Because you're not done  
You're far too young  
And the best is yet to come_**

 _The way she has always tried to control me, has always pushed me to the edge. The fact that she thinks I lied about my dad raping me says it all. She has driven me to distraction over the years and I can't handle it anymore. I can't take anymore Don. I can never forgive her. She allowed my dad to physically and sexually abuse me for years. She knew I wasn't lying. She had to know. I used to come home covered in bruises or with clumps of hair missing. So did my brother. I used to tell her that he was hurting me even before he started to sexually abuse me. I remember when I was seven my dad threw me down the stairs and I broke my left leg. Alex had carry me to the hospital and they called my mom. I told her what my dad had done so she called him and he came straight to the hospital. He told her Alex had taken me to the park and had no idea that I'd hurt myself. He claimed that I must've fallen out of a tree. She believed him and not me. Isn't a mother supposed to believe her child? Isn't she supposed to protect her child?_

 _Aren't fathers supposed to do that? My father never protected me. He spent most of my childhood abusing me every chance he got. I remember all the times he slapped me, all the times he punched me in the stomach so hard I could barely breathe. All those times he shoved me to the ground and kicked me up my backside, sometimes so hard I could barely sit down for days. Or the times he got so mad he'd take his belt and slam it into my skin. Or all the times he dragged me round by hair while I screamed at him that I was in pain. He used to laugh. I remember all those times when he walked in on me while I was in the shower or getting dressed. I remember him touching me all those times. And I remember every single time he ever raped me._

 _ **So just give it one more try to a lullaby**  
 **And turn this up on the radio**  
 **If you can hear me now**  
 **I'm reaching out**  
 **To let you know that you're not alone**  
 **And if you can't tell, I'm scared as hell**  
 **'Cause I can't get you on the telephone**  
 **So just close your eyes**  
 **Oh, honey here comes a lullaby**  
 **Your very own lullaby**_

 _I remember after the first time he ever raped me he told me that if I ever told anyone he would make sure no man ever wanted me. And I guess that worked for years. I can't get the memories out of my head Don. I've tried and they won't go. Sometimes I forget and live like there's no tomorrow but other times I'm crippled by the memories. I've tried to so hard to move on. I never see him anymore because I can't bear to look at his face. When he showed up at that crime scene, it was the first time I'd seen him in twelve years. I just can't look him in the eye ever again._

He looked up for a moment, thinking about the time she'd been interviewing him and realised, she'd never made eye contact with him. She hadn't looked him in the eye once. "He really hurt you" he trembled as tears began to trickle down his cheeks.

 _I spent my childhood living in fear of him and living in despair of my mother. I know I'm not the only girl in the world who got landed with bad parents who treated me like dirt. And I know I'm not the only one who's struggled with it but sometimes I find it so hard. There have been so many times when I haven't wanted to go on. I've tried killing myself three times and I failed. I always remember my brother telling me after my last attempt that the reason I hadn't died was because I didn't deserve it and I had everything to live for. That it wasn't my time yet. He told me I had to live. But now I can't carry on. My mother killed our baby and the grief is too much. I'm so confused and angry that the world is a haze and I can't bear the thought of going through this ever again._

 ** _Well, everybody's hit the bottom  
Everybody's been forgotten  
When everybody's tired of being alone  
Yeah, everybody's been abandoned  
And left a little empty handed  
So if you're out there barely hanging on..._**

 _I wanted this baby so much. I couldn't wait for us to be a family. Me, you and our baby boy. It was going to be everything I've ever needed. I knew you wanted it too. I remember you smiling at the scans, not one of those silly grins you get when you're being playful but a serious smile. A genuine happy smile. I thought then that maybe this time things would be ok. That I would finally get to be happy. I wish I never told my mom then she wouldn't have given me all those pills. I was so ready for it all. I can't even describe how happy I was the first time I heard his tiny heart beating away. Or how amazing it was the first time he kicked inside me, how it made me see how much I had to live for. Now he's gone, dead inside me and I can't bear it._

 _It's all I ever wanted and it's gone. You're everything I have ever wanted, everything I've ever needed. You know I said that my dad said he would make sure no man ever wanted me and that it worked for years. It's true. Just in a different way. Most people think that the men I've dated have dumped me because they think I think I'm better than them because I try to be someone I shouldn't be. That's not really the case. It's partly because of that, because all these men are rich. Buts it also because they are rich that they remind me of my father. It's just not them being rich that ruins my relationships with men. It's that I push them away. I have struggled for years to be able to allow men close to me. I have struggled with intimacy issues because of the sexual abuse I suffered. My first few boyfriends, the men my mom set me up with, I refused to sleep with at all, the first two I refused to allow them to kiss me or hug me. Some of my later boyfriends I didn't sleep with either because I just didn't feel comfortable with them. But with you… it was different._

 ** _Just give it one more try to a lullaby  
And turn this up on the radio  
If you can hear me now  
I'm reaching out  
To let you know that you're not alone  
And if you can't tell, I'm scared as hell  
'Cause I can't get you on the telephone  
So just close your eyes  
Oh, honey here comes a lullaby  
Your very own lullaby_**

 _I never really thought that I'd ever find somebody who loves me the way that I am. You've never tried to change me or tell me I need to change. You've always told me that I'm fine the way I am. You're the only person in the world that has ever made me feel like I'm worth anything. That has ever made feel loved. I wish I'd met you sooner. I see that look in your eyes sometimes, wondering if you could take away all the pain that you see when you look at me. I know you see that sometimes. And I want you to know that you have taken away so much of my pain just by being there with me. By loving me, and making me feel worth something. By just being with me. Your smile makes me happy. Just seeing it. You tell me that you don't care about my imperfections. My scars, they don't bother you. Who I am doesn't bother you. You have always known how to make my pain melt away, even just for a moment._

 _I love you more than I've ever loved anybody else. You have made me happier than I've ever been. If it weren't for you I probably wouldn't have carried on so long. But now I can't take it anymore. I can't live with what my mother has done to me, with the guilt I feel over allowing her to do it._

 _I know you'll be ok. I promise you. I promise you will find someone else who loves you, to love you. I'm so sorry… Goodbye Don… I love you._

 _Love Adrianna_

And he just broke down in tears. Why hadn't she just told him? He was absolutely devastated, his heart was in pieces that were scattered across the floor. It felt like everything good was gone. He thought about her, it all made sense now. It was no wonder she'd been a mess since she'd reappeared. She'd been convinced her mother had killed their baby.

He returned to the hospital the following morning, having barely slept and sat beside her. He stroked her face as tears slid down his cheeks. "I love you so much" he trembled "More than you'll ever know. You could've told me. I would've been there for you. Please hold on Adrianna. I need you and your little boy needs you. He's alive and he's fighting for his life. He needs you. Please fight. Because I promise I'll look after you. You'll be ok"

 ** _Oh, honey here comes a lullaby  
Your very own lullaby_**

* * *

I cannot believe I've just posted seven chapters in one go! They've been more or less finished for a while but I've just tided them up and saved them as separate documents as all the chapters are in one large document which is my master copy. The next chapter is about done but I just need to check it but it should be up soon.

Note for this chapter all bold italics are the song which is Lullaby by Nickelback and the note is in regular italics. on the master copy i have in a curly font but you can't get different fonts on here. The normal writing is where Flack is either thinking, acting or speaking.

Please R&R. Enjoy :)


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